


District 9

by IRLS_stay_away



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Alternate Universe - Future, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Han Jisung | Han & Lee Felix are Best Friends, Han Jisung | Han Being an Asshole, Hurt/Comfort, I made a world around the district 9 MV ok, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Torture, Lee Minho | Lee Know Being an Asshole, M/M, Minor Han Jisung | Han/Lee Minho | Lee Know, POV Han Jisung | Han, Plot Driven, Rebellion, References to other idols, Slow Burn, So much angst, Strangers to Friends to Lovers, but it aint that bad I promise, district 9 (stray kids) AU, lee minho | lee know &; lee felix are siblings, more plot than ships sorry, world building, y'all are in for a ride
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-16
Updated: 2019-07-16
Packaged: 2020-03-06 04:12:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 27,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18843391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IRLS_stay_away/pseuds/IRLS_stay_away
Summary: They live in District 8. there's 8 of them. Bang Chan, Kim Woojin, Seo Changbin, Hwang Hyunjin, Han Jisung, Lee Felix, Kim Seungmin, and Yang Jeongin. Every district is the same. They're taught many things, but the one that they're tested on the most is that conformity is key. They don't know exactly why they're here, but they do what they've been told to by everyone around them... for the most part. They're not allowed to leave until they finish their training, that much is clear. Free will does not exist. They're apart of the system.Of course there's more sinister things behind the lies they've been fed, and one night, Chan discovers one of them. The next morning, there's a mysterious new guy in his class named Lee Minho who seems to hold the keys to freedom. It might take a little convincing, a little scheming, but if anyone can crack Minho's heart, or get his heart cracked by Minho, It's Han Jisung, resident idiot/genius with a knack for getting into too much trouble and too much hurt.A/N: I swear this is Jisung's POV, but I'm basing a lot of it (lol most of it) off of the District 9 MV, so there are some chapters (the 1st one) where there are other character POVs.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hello!! Thank you for concidering reading this! Let me tell you that you're in for a ride! If you like action/dystopian I think you'll like this one! I'm not one for a lot of romance, so if that's your scene, please still give this a shot! 
> 
> I've always wanted to write a story based off of District 9, and now I've finally gotten the guts to do so. Please enjoy!

**Chapter 1: The Sky and the Stars**

Chan was the one to find it.

There were broken shards of flickering glass laying between his feet. From where they came from, he hadn’t seen it yet. He was staring in awe at those little fragments. Sitting on top of them was a little drone. It was similar to the ones the instructor used to monitor the courtyards, though Chan knew for a fact this particular area wasn’t covered under their rounds. He was safe in this tiny corner.

After all, these were the fields. Nothing but rows of plants, fresh fruit and grains, for miles. Why would the Institution waste money on all that? When their top-of-the-line mechanisms kept them in check? Speaking of which, Chan shouldn’t have had the thought to come here in the first place. He wasn’t sure why he stood in this very spot in this very moment. A spark of curiosity had propelled him forward when he’d heard the slight tinkling of glass being shattered somewhere far, far away.

That led him here.

He crouched down quietly, looked behind him down the rows of tall hedges, but the fog cut his view about twenty feet short of the barracks. Chan glued his eyes back to the little drone, now shooting sparks. The blades in the wings spun in lazy, broken circles. It’s shell was painted with red and black streaks, an odd color that was impossible to find.

The Institution had an affinity towards cold colors. All the buildings were white and gray, their clothes were pure white, and the screen they were trained to use were mostly green. The only time Chan had seen red was in a rose. It had been a bright red thing sticking out of a hedge. He’d gone to touch it, and a guard had quickly grabbed his wrist and wrestled him away. The next day he walked back to the spot, and the rose head had been cut cleanly off.

There was something teeming in his soul, like he’d been woken up from a deep sleep. The longer he inspected the drone, the more questions filled his mind. Where had it come from? Why here? Why him? He wasn’t used to questions. They were taught from the beginning that questions were terrible, that he should put his head down and follow The Institution. Still, like the rose, Chan was curious. It was something he’d gotten beat out of him multiple times, but it came back in fresh waves each time. They would try again and again, using any method they could think of, but Chan had an affinity for trouble, no matter what he did. He tried his best, he really did, but his best was never good enough.

Chan ran his hand along the smooth exterior of the drone. It was different than the cesious blue and white model the Institution churned out on a manufacturing line. Ten per hour. This one’s interface was much older. The wires were twisted along little spindly legs that stuck out like a beetle on its back. Chan wasn’t even supposed to know what a beetle was, but he found one in the garden one day. A kind teacher had took him aside and had told him very excitedly that it was a stag beetle. He never saw her after that. He assumed she went to a different district. Most of his favorite teachers ended up not staying long. He never got to learn much of what they tried to teach him, but he remembered each and every one of them.

His latest instructor, a girl named Nayeon, had taught him a little about the stars, which were no longer visible due to excessive amounts of light pollution and a clustered ring of satellites around the Earth. Chan made it his own personal mission to see the stars once he graduated from The Institution.

Chan looked up for the first time since he found the drone. He held the pieces in his hands, fearing they’d be found by a guard. It was night time in District 8, the sky a wash of indigo and black. Not a single cloud or star to be seen. The moon has a mere sliver. He didn’t know what he was expecting when he tilted his head all the way back to stare into the abyss.

What he found had his heart stopping. First, his hands became numb. Little pins and needles worked their way up his arms, to his chest, where a claw grabbed his heart and stopped it from beating. Then a shiver passed through his spine up into his scalp, until his whole body was paralyzed. It wasn’t exactly fear, though it was a close relative. He gripped the drone harder, afraid it would drop. He looked away, and his heart started beating. Chan’s mind raced with a million more questions. Thoughts that he should never have began to flash through his mind. Everything snapped into place, and he heavied out a breath, unaware that his lungs had also momentarily stopped.

This sky was a lie. Far above his head, the flickering of broken holographic panels winked at him like a star. This drone had crashed through a _ceiling._ He bent down and swiped the glass shards around the roots of the hedge. His heart was beating too fast now. He wasn’t supposed to know this. He wasn’t supposed to know anything! The Institution _will_ kill him this time if they find out he knows. But why would they lie to him? To all of them? Chan held the drone at eye level and turned it over and over in his hands. Where had it come from? Someone must have flown it through the ceiling.

He looked behind him again. A cricket chirped, and he jumped like a frightened animal. His eyes were wide, chest heaving rapidly, and he crouched like he was about to run at any moment. They’d kill him right here and now if they saw him with this red drone.

_I should go back,_ He thought. _I’ve had enough for one night. I’m not even supposed to be here!_ Curfew was an hour ago. They’d soon send out guards on their rounds to scour the fields for little mice. Aka Bang Chan. So he twisted around and began to make his way back, the drone still clutched to his chest, arms wrapped securely over it. There was no way he’d get it into the barracks, the security was too tight. He’d have to hide it somewhere, then maybe get Seungmin to take a look at it. Despite them all being trained in coding and engineering, Seungmin was at the top of the class, and was the only one from his 8 friends that could _really_ toy with electronics. Unfortunately, he followed the rules almost too well.

When Chan got closer, to the point where the searchlights cut through the fog and exposed the long, low barracks buildings, he ducked low, timed it just right for him to slip into the shadows and around the large, steel plated fence, and flatten his back along the side of the barracks. They were made from solid concrete painted a white that blended into the concrete floor. Everything was unforgiving here. Not any patches of dirt to be seen outside of the gardens.

Chan knew a little secret though. It was something Jisung had discovered last month. They had no idea why it existed, but it was now their little safe haven away from it all. Chan shuffled along the building. This one was barracks 2. On the other side was 1. He needed to get to 9 before a guard or spotlight caught him. Not to mention he was clutching a drone to his chest, limiting the use of his arms to nearly none. Luckily, the guard’s patterns were set as if there was a track they were placed on and let to run. So Chan navigated through them all, narrowly avoiding being caught. Luckily, his white clothing blended rather nicely with the barrack walls, and with the streets. There was almost no need for him to lurk in the shadows at all.

The problem was the drone, and its bright red stripes. He was pretty sure the visors the guards were equipped with had a sensor that detected the color red. During training in 3rd year, the classes were taught all about color sensory. It was used to “Exterminate any excess color that might cause a distraction to the workers,” the visors made certain shades brighter, while it dulled the rest. They were tricky things. Chan resorted to stuffing the drone under his shirt, which was unpleasant at best. He winced whenever a loose screw or sharp metal bit would stab at his stomach, and he’d pause whenever it jostled too much.

However, he made it to his own barracks before the guards could catch a whiff of him. He took a great big breath, loosening up the anxiety that was crawling through his limbs like ants. Chan sneaked the back of the barracks. This side was facing a tall steel fence that no one dared to try and scale. But that’s not what he cared about. He ran his hand along the building wall.. It didn’t take him long to find the crack in the concrete. When Jisung had discovered this door, he’d almost lost told his Instructor right away. But then he thought otherwise, and kept it to himself before sharing it with his two closest friends, Chan and Changbin. Chan had recently invited Hyunjin, Jeongin, Woojin, and a kid named Felix who came from another district.

The door wasn’t an easy one to open. After all, It was a big slab of concrete narrowly suspended on three tiny hinges. It didn’t swing inwards either. He had to worm the tips of his fingers into the tiny little crack in the wall, then pull with all his might to get it even an inch open. This time though, when Chan cracked open the door, it opened with ease. Chan stumbled back and fell with a grunt. He used his elbows to break his fall and swore quietly when stinging pain laced up his arms. The drone was still tucked into his shirt.

“Channie hyung, is that you?” Jisung’s face popped out from behind the door. His was biting his bottom lip which puffed out his cheeks, making him look like a squirrel. Chan rubbed the grit from his palms and checked his elbows. Both were torn and bleeding. “Oh shit, sorry hyung,” Jisung whispered, and crouched down to help him back up.

Chan waved him off. “It’s fine, I got this,” He assured him. Chan pressed the drone to his bare stomach again, and pushed himself off the ground with his other hand. Jisung hovered over him, darting around like a wild animal, and saying sorry every 2.5 seconds. “Just close the door, hurry up,” Chan hissed under his breath. The light was spilling out onto the ground. They were causing a scene.

“I didn’t think you’d be coming in here after going out in the fields,” Jisung said as they finally made it into their little hideout. It was a small space. Only about the size of one of their bedrooms. Jisung had been hoarding stuff that they found, and re purposed little trinkets they made in class, or things that the institution deemed worthless. As for lighting, it was a collection of tiny LED’s on a string suspended around the room and draped over the floor to ceiling shelves. There was one table built from the wall, and Chan went straight to it, swept off Jisung’s latest project—with much protest—and dropped the drone there instead. Jisung instantly cut off his complaints when he saw it. He walked over silently, his eyes shining with awe.

“Where did you find this?”

“In the field,” Chan nodded. Should he talk about the sky? Any how it was broken? Or does his need more proof? He opened his mouth to say something. It was right on the tip of his tongue. But something stopped him. He sighed instead and ran a hand through his hair. “There’s some weird stuff you can find out there.”

“Yeah? You ever go way out and look at the bus?” Jisung was crouched over the table. He had a screwdriver in one hand and pliers in the other. He was picking at the drone’s insect-like legs.

“The bus? You mean those big bulky cars they had before the Districts? We _have_ one in here?”

“Yeah, it’s _way_ far out though, you’d have to walk like three miles the way,” Jisung pointed to his left. Left was where the fence was. “It’s sitting in the wastelands. We’re not supposed to go back there.”

Chan crossed his arms and leaned on the table. “Then how’d you get there?”

Jisung snorted. “I didn’t, Seungminnie made a super powerful, and _super_ small camera lens.”

“Of course he did,” Chan muttered. Jisung pried open the drone’s shell to reveal a mess of sparking wires, motherboards, and a camera body.

“The lens comes out here,” Jisung held the drone up and showed Chan a tiny little lens on a rotating pivot. “I’ve never seen a model like this, do you think it’s from another district?”

Chan shrugged. He wanted to take the drone back. He shouldn’t have gotten his friend involved. What if they were found out? Then both of them would be punished. “Maybe we should just put it back where I found it. We’re gonna get in trouble.”

Jisung narrowed his eyes. “Why’d you bring it here if you were just gonna put it back anyway?”

“I...I wasn’t thinking, okay? We should put it back before we get in trouble!”

“It’s in here now. If anyone finds us, we’ll be dead either way, it doesn’t matter anymore.” He sighed. “Besides, this thing is _cool._ Have you ever seen red like this?” Jisung ran his thumb down the red stripes on the drone’s disassembled back. “We’re not allowed to have anything that's red. They say its a glitch in the system.”

Chan scratched his neck, thinking. He should’ve just left the stupid drone. Now Jisung was attached to it. Before Chan could say anything, Jisung was pulling the camera from its hiding spot beneath a mountain of wires. His smile was wide and happy, something Chan rarely ever saw. It put him at ease. It would be okay if they were happy. They’d be fine if they stuck together.

“Oh shit!” Jisung yelled and scrambled to throw the camera away. “It’s on! It’s recording!” Jisung lept to the other side of the room as if he’d been stung.

Chan’s stomach lept into his throat. _Shit!_ He shouldn’t have pushed his luck so much! Chan found the tiny camera on the floor and stepped on it. It took three or four stomps before the plastic casing cracked and the insides exploded over the floor. He twisted his heel into it for good measure. He took a deep breath when it was absolutely demolished.

“Damn Chan, didn’t have to ruin it like that, I could’ve made something with that.”

Chan slumped his shoulders and sighed in exasperation. “You just jumped across the room!”

“Not the point Chan, the point is that a camera is a camera. We need as many as we can get.”

“Why do you want so many cameras?”

Jisung slowly crept over to the rest of the drone to see if anything else was salvageable. “Changbin and I had an idea,” His eyes shone brightly. They were teeming with mischief. “It’s nothing much, but it’s always a crap shoot tryna figure out what our window of time is when we leave. Solution? Tiny spy cameras, like the ones they implant in glasses frames. The Institution doesn’t seem to realize the potential cameras like that have,” Jisung plucked a few wires from the drone. The blades started spinning weakly.

“Let's keep it that way,” Chan said. He shivered at the thought of tiny cameras following their every move. At least the institution made it clear that they were being monitored nearly 24/7.

“There’s a small little crack in the concrete about two feet from the door that could hide a camera. _If_ we can find one small enough.”

“You can’t guarantee they won’t try and fill the hole in,” Chan reasoned. Putting tiny cameras in places was bound to get them caught. Jisung was playing a dangerous game. He should really stop him. He was older afterall, and knew that Jisung and Changbin would listen to him. His other friends too.

“They never come back here besides the odd round or whatnot. Hyunjin’s been tracking their movements, he’s getting a layout of the whole east side, Here,” Jisung handed Chan an old, beat up tablet. The thing was ancient. It still had a 2D screen and physical buttons on the sides. Chan pressed the power button anyway. The screen lit up in a seafoam green color before lines of code flashed across the screen.

“Oop, he broke it,” Jisung muttered. He was leaning over Chan’s arm to peer at the screen. “I just fixed it two days ago.”

“You’re playing a dangerous game, y’know.” Chan said.

Jisung shrugged. “Look, I don’t know about you, but I hate this place. It’s so confining. We’re not even allowed to go to any other districts. I tried to get Felix to tell me about District 4, but he says it’s exactly the same as ours! What are we even supposed to _do_ once they’re done training us?” Jisung snorted. “There’s no point to this place, it’s like a prison.”

Chan nodded. He felt exactly like that. Still, The Institution was all he’d ever known, it was all anyone had ever known. To go against it was to go against God and Nature and Humanity itself. If someone disobeyed, they’d be punished, sent to a correctional facility across the campus in a little darkly lit room where they have you sit there and be retaught everything all over again until your mind is too numb to protest. Chan knows. He’s been there 7 times.

“There’s a flaw in their system,” Jisung is continuing, “And it’s us. It’s humanity. They think that they can contain us like the mice we play with during Bio-Tech, but they can’t. They’re scared of it,” Jisung grinned. It was too cheerful for the words spitting from his mouth, but it was the only way he’d been taught how to smile. “They’re trying to slowly kill our humanity, but it doesn’t work like that, we don’t work like that.”

“Ok Jisung, I know,” Chan always had to humor him. Though deep down, he knew that it was the truth. The Institution was holding them there. But maybe it was for their own good. None of them knew what was beyond the corn fields to the west, the hedgerows to the north, the lake to the south, and the waste lands to the east. They stretched on and on. Apparently, most of the world was just like that. There should be nothing more.

Then what about the fake sky? How did they even make the glass holograms up there? It would have to touch the ground at some point, right? Chan furrowed his eyebrows.

“What’re you thinking about now?” Jisung asked. His eyes were big and wide. Chan shook his head. He needed to get more proof before he dragged Jisung and Changbin into this.

“We should get back and get some sleep, we’ve got training tomorrow,” Chan patted Jisung’s back and directed him to the door. He whined slightly, but obeyed without any other protest.

“I’m tellin’ you, we gotta get outta here before Woojin graduates, we might not see him again.”

“I know,” Chan said, and continued to shove him out the door. Jisung clicked his tongue and pushed the big slab of concrete away. He peeked his head out, looked both ways, before motioning that it was ok. Chan crept out after him, and they made their way stealthily to the back entrance of the Barracks. Jisung slipped in first, barely opening the door, and Chan went second.

“Channie hyung, Jisungie, is that you?” A low voice whispered in the dark. Chan closed the door, and a blue LED phone light blinded them right away. “Oh thank god you’re back,” Felix sighed in relief.   
“Felix!” Chan whisper shouted. “What’re you doing up?” His eyes were finally starting to adjust to the light. He saw the boy lower his head from behind the glare of the flashlight. His heart nearly melted. Everyone had a soft spot for Felix. There was good reason too. Despite the fluffy blond hair, he had cute freckles, and large, innocent eyes. What caught people off was his booming voice. They rarely could get Felix mad, his personality just wasn’t made for it, but when he was, they ran and hid from his hell.

Chan stepped around to him and ruffled his hair. “Let’s go, okay? Who’s your roommate right now?”

“I still haven’t gotten one,” Felix muttered. Jisung bounded up behind him and looped his arm around Felix’s shoulder.

“You can sleep with Chanbin and I if you’re scared!” Jisung grinned like it was the perfect idea.

Chan shook his head. “That’s not allowed, we’ll get in trouble.”

Jisung stuck his tongue out. “You’re no fun hyung, and you’re the one who breaks the rules the most.”

Felix raised an eyebrow. “That’s true, what were you and Jisung doing outside?”

Chan scratched his neck. He shouldn’t say anything yet. Not to Felix. If anyone, Felix had to remain safe. And the only safety in here was when the lights were shut off on your eyes. _I have to leave you in the dark…_

“Channie hyung was-”

“Jisung,” He said seriously. Jisung peered over at him with his big eyes. He shook his head just a little bit. Luckily, that stupid squirrel got the message.

“Chan did what?”

Jisung waved him off. “He was taking a shit,”

“Hey!” Chan hissed under his breath. He reached around and poked Jisung’s ribs, until the three of them broke apart squirming and trying to kill each other. Their laughter was light in the dead of night. Not a single note echoed through the empty corridor. Their rooms were on the second floor, but no one seemed to want to go up there. Chan lead their trio up the steps anyway. Everything felt squeaky clean besides themselves.

Chan’s head felt messy. Too much was going on always. He needed to protect his friends. He needed to figure out the drone, the glass, and try not to get caught in the process. He knew things they didn’t, and he was still determined to keep it that way until it was time. The Institution was his enemy now. How could they hide the stars from him?

 

—————————

 

Mornings came at 7am every day. Chan had been up until 2:30am. It wasn’t his proudest moment when he rushed out of his dorm only to find their floor’s bathroom was completely occupied. The downstairs one was in the same shape. So he forgoed a shower he probably needed, and threw on his uniform. He nearly forgot to brush his teeth, but Woojin snatched him by the collar like a mother cat before he could escape.

“What are you running around for?” He asked once he’d shoved Chan towards the sinks. “There’s like, ten minutes left, chill.”

“Nah, I’ve got class on the other side of the compound!” Chan yelled. He brushed his teeth in record time, probably scrubbing his enamel clean off, before dashing off again. His nerves were all buzzing, anxious energy clouding his thoughts. He nearly made it out the door when something large and heavy smacked into his back. He stumbled forward but caught himself from falling. Chan looked at the ground and there was his school issued white bag containing literally his entire life's work. Chan snapped his head to the second floor, where Woojin waved him goodbye. He smiled. His friends were too good to him.

He snatched his bag off the floor and dashed out the door. He basically sprinted to the training facilities then weaved through the maze of hallways and outside corridors until he came to his first class room. He made it just as Changbin was entering the classroom.

“Where have you been? I didn’t see you this morning,” Changbin hissed while Chan tried to catch his breath.

“Look, I had a rough night-”

“Did Jisung drag you into another weird project of his? I _told_ him to not lock himself in that...his... room everyday-”

“No no, it’s my fault this time,” Chan said. He made a mental note to tell Changbin about the drone once they were out of surveillance. He checked the four corners of the room, and sure enough, the large, bulky security cameras were watching their every move. Him and Changbin were the last ones to take their seats. They got to sit together for this class, as the project they were working on required it. The room was silent as always. There was absolutely no talking allowed unless it was to the teacher. Chan wanted to scream about the drone and about the glass ceiling and _everything,_ but he couldn’t. He bounced his leg impatiently, which caused a few classmates to give him weird stares. He didn’t stop until the teacher stepped in.

Everyone’s head turned, then they all collectively paused. Chan and Changbin held their breath along with the rest of the class. Behind their teacher was a guy. He had his hands curled into fists by his side, and a blank expression resting on his face. He might look like a human, but he seemed soulless. There was no life in his eyes. Nothing but a shell, maybe.

“This is Lee Minho,” The teacher said. Minho dragged his gaze across the classroom. When he got to Chan, Chan froze. He’d made a mistake. Minho wasn’t soulless. The smallest hint of a mischievous grin twitched on his lips before fading back into blankness as the teacher continued to talk.

“Did you see that?” Chan broke the rule and whispered to Changbin. Changbin gave him a weird look. Okay, maybe he’d imagined it.

The teacher was still talking, “-he’s a transfer from district 5 and will be staying in Barracks 9 until further notice. Minho,” she addressed him directly. Minho straighten his posture like a soldier and kept himself completely still. The teacher seemed to like that very much. You’d never be able to tell from her expression, but her tone became slightly less rigid. “Take a seat next to Changbin.”

Chan watched Minho like a hawk, waiting for him to catch his eye again. There was something strange about him. Changbin turned towards him and nodded curtly in greeting. Chan was going to do the same, but Minho turned to face front without even acknowledging his existence. That made him mildly miffed.

The teacher began giving a short speech detailing their current projects. Everything was done on their holographic tablets. Chan and Changbin were currently working on new gene splicing sequences, but they weren’t getting far. Sharing one screen, most of the time they’d just chat about things and try not to get in trouble. They came up with a code, considering everything they were doing was being monitored. They used Biology jargon nonsense as replacement words for other things. It was the simplest thing in the world, really, but it worked. Computerized systems were easy to trick with a little ingenuity.

Their class continued in silence. Chan sneaked a few glances at Minho, who remained faithfully glued to his tablet screen. Chan wanted to not hate him, but the kid sure did suck at first impressions. He asked Changbin what he thought through their code system.

 

**What’re your thoughts on the new kid**

He seems normal, why?

**He doesn’t seem a little weird to you?**

We’re the weird ones if you haven’t noticed.

 

Yeah, that was true. Chan sighed and stretched his arms above his head before leaning back in his chair. He tilted his head to look at whatever Minho was so engrossed in on his tablet. The sight made him visibly freeze. A shiver of fear laced its way through his whole body. Then he snapped out of it and buried his face into his own tablet screen. Changbin gave him a questioning look, but he wasn’t paying attention.

Minho had been looking a video of something. There was only one thing that could have video footage like it. After all, it had been his face on the screen before the video turned to static.

Chan slowly craned his neck to see if Minho was still watching the footage. Instead, he was staring straight at him.


	2. Lying Lee Minho

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyone confused yet?

**Chapter 2: Lying Lee Minho**

News spreads fast when everyone is connected. The entire world was at their fingertips and under their noses at every waking moment of the day. Jisung found out through Felix, who found out through Seungmin, who had gotten it straight from Chan and Changbin as it happened. So now he and Felix were waiting, leaning their elbows on their cafeteria table even after an instructor had whacked them off with a wooden baton. They were rebels, what could he say? Their lunch hour had just begun. Chan normally would be here by now. Did he get in trouble again? Jisung’s stomach dropped at the thought. If Chan wracked up 10 trips to the Correction ward, he’d be transferred to a new district. 

That’s what happened to Felix.

“What do you think he’s like?” Felix mused. His eyes were up to the ceiling, probably daydreaming all about this new guy. With him also being a transfer, they were bound to be connected from the start. Jisung just hoped that the new guy’s personality matched well with his. He didn’t think anyone would want to see a Jisung vs hyunjin 2.0. Well, maybe Seungmin. He was pretty sure Seungmin was a demon in disguise. 

“You waiting for the new kid?” Speaking of demons… Seungmin plopped himself down next to them and immediately took out his tablet. There was a 3D model of a deconstructed camera lens. Typical. Jisung thought of the crazy red drone Chan had found the night before. And now a transfer student? This week was crazy already! 

“Yeah, I think everyone is. I hope Chan snags him before he floats off to another gang,” Jisung flicked Seungmin’s holographic model just to piss him off. It didn’t work and he pouted, disappointed by the lack of reaction. 

“Stop calling friends groups gangs. And I think Chan’s got him already,” Seungmin said. “He was following Chan around after first hour, I saw them pass through the gym.” 

“Did you see where they went?” Jisung perked up. So their leader had already gotten another… 

Seungmin shook his head. “Nah, Changbin wasn’t with them either. I don’t know what’s up with Chan, he’s been acting weird all day.” 

Jisung nodded.  _ It’s probably because of the drone…  _ he thought. That was the only thing that was really out of normal. Sure, transfer students were far and few between, but they weren’t impossible. What  _ was  _ impossible was an unidentified drone that showed up out of nowhere. Jisung shook out his thoughts. “What does the new guy look like?” 

“He’s out of your fucking league, that’s what,” Hyunjin slammed his palms flat on the table, startling everyone. 

“Wh-what?! That’s not why I’m asking you asshole!” Jisung sputtered. Hyunjin smiled innocently, and Jisung wanted to rip his face off. So Jisung vs Hyunjin had never really ended… He knew that Hyunjin was just teasing, but he could feel prickles of embarrassment heating up the back of his neck. 

“He’s got this killer jawline, big cat eyes, a straight nose, and his mouth goes like this,” Hyunjin quirked the corners of his mouth upwards. It looked absolutely ridiculous. Felix snorted behind his hand, but Hyunjin caught him anyway. “Don’t make fun of me! I’m just describing this guy!” Hyunjin sat down across from them, cupped his face with his hands, and pouted. “Anyway, does anyone know his name?” A chorus of ‘nopes’ followed his question. 

Jisung saw Changbin right before he slipped into the spot next to Hyunjin. “His name’s Minho,” Changbin said before Jisung even opened his mouth. “He’s pretty normal, Chan got a little spooked by him for some reason. But he’d been jumpy all day.” 

“That’s what  _ I  _ was saying,” Seungmin nodded along. Hyunjin, Jisung, and felix were all together in most of their classes. They were in a grade below Changbin and Seungmin. Seungmin was only there because he managed to skip a whole grade. Chan and Woojin were in a grade above those two, but Chan had 1 class with Changbin and 1 with Seungmin in the afternoon. 

Jisung knew exactly why Chan was acting so weird. The drone was causing him to be more wary. Afterall, if they were caught with it, they’d be toast. Chan was coming down on his last chances too. A bag slammed down in front Seungmin. Woojin slid down next to Changbin a second later. He looked tired, but said hello to them all. 

“New kid, have you seen him?” Jisung asked right away. 

Woojin shook his head. “Nope, but we’ll see him eventually, right?” 

“Jeongin!” Felix stood up in his seat suddenly, startling Jisung, and waved down the youngest of the bunch. Jeongin bounced over and scooted in beside Hyunjin. Felix sat down again. They were almost complete, just one more—two more—to go. In the meanwhile, they talked about their sweet nothings. Their words were laced with their codes of course. Plans were always forming. 

Jisung desperately wanted to tell them about the drone, so he said, “Guys, There’s this code I’m working on,” 

That got their attention. To them, this wasn’t about code, it was about a new discovery. “It’s abou-” Jisung was interrupted by Felix again. He’d looked up for a fraction of a second, and his entire face went through a series of emotions Jisung had never seen him display before. He was frozen on the spot, was he even breathing? First, it was confusion, then recognition, then surprise, disbelief, fear, and happiness. All of that within the span of a second. 

Jisung and the rest of them swiveled to see what he was looking at. There was Chan stepping into the cafeteria. He looked semi pissed. It wasn’t a good look. Jisung cringed internally. Behind him was a guy he’d never seen.  _ That’s Minho!  _ His brain supplied. And  _ shit.  _ Hyunjin was right. But that’s not what mattered. What  _ did  _ matter was Minho stopping dead when he saw 7 faces staring directly at him. The rest of the cafeteria didn’t really care. People were indifferent to them. The buzz was gone, the new kid was in with the trouble making weirdos. Everyone got the message. Fuck off. 

Minho’s eyes were locked directly on Felix, who looked like a startled animal. Jisung looked between the two. What the hell was going on? Felix’s mouth was moving, like he was trying to say something, but just  _ couldn’t.  _ Chan had froze too. He was flicking his head furious between the two of them. 

“Do you know Felix?” Chan asked, and it was lie releasing a flood gate. The frozen air shifted. Felix leaped over the table, blurting out a strangled  _ “hyung!”  _ then flung himself at Minho, who had absolutely  _ no  _ time to react, and was nearly thrown to the floor. Luckily, Chan was there and grabbed Minho’s wrist before he fell over. 

All of them moved at once. Jisung vaulted himself over the table next. Thank  _ god  _ none of the instructors were around to see them act like monkeys. They all would’ve gotten sent to the correction ward. Hyunjin made it to Minho and Felix, who was clutching onto the new guy’s shirt and  _ sobbing.  _

“What the hell?” Chan said, which was the general consensus of what they were all thinking. Minho wasn’t talking over looking at them at all. He was focused on  _ crushing  _ Felix in a tight hug. “Whats going on?” They could only watch, as Felix emptied out his tears. It was like a switch had been flipped once he’d calmed down though. Felix shoved himself away. He looked pissed. Jisung took a step back. There was no way he was going to get involved in whatever mess this was. 

“Why the  _ hell  _ are you here?” Felix growled low in his throat. Jisung could barely hear it. 

“I got transferred here,” Minho said simply. And suddenly, Jisung got chills as he watched Minho’s face got from alive to a completely blank slate. Chan also narrowed his eyes. Felix, however, did not seem to care. 

“Stop fucking playing around, hyung, Why are you  _ here.”  _

Minho scowled, clearly pissed off. He glanced at each of them. They were surrounding them like a pack of vultures. Jisung almost felt bad, but they still had to protect Felix. Who knows what this Minho guy was  _ really  _ like. If he could act like a robot without a soul, then what else was he capable of? 

Chan poked Jisung’s elbow and whispered, “I have to talk to you about those drones…” Jisung snapped his head to Chan. God, they were going to get killed. Why was he bringing this up now? Jisung caught sight of a security camera staring down at them. Everything was just getting messier and messier. 

“Felix,” Chan said to him. Felix turned. He was still furious, but he blinked and all of it drained out of him. 

“Hyung, Minho’s my brother,” He said, pointing a weak finger at Minho, like they needed more confirmation. 

“What?!” Jisung shouted out of instinct. “You’re related?!” Minho snapped his attention to him and suddenly, Jisung never wanted to speak again. His face grew warm, and he looked down at his feet. 

“Yeah, related. We’re brothers, got a problem with that?” Minho rolled his eyes sarcastically. He turned to Felix. “I’ve been looking all over for you, you know. How the hell did you end up in the last district?” 

Felix had curled into himself now, as if that wet spot on Minho’s clothes wasn’t from his crying. He looked impossibly small next to Minho, though he wasn’t much shorter. Minho appeared to be all sharp edges and sarcastic wit. Jisung knew that Felix was sunshine and rainbows. “It doesn’t matter about me, why are  _ you  _ here? You… You were…” Felix glanced at the rest of their faces. “We should… I should…” He glared at Minho. “I need to talk to you… somewhere else.” 

“Me fucking too,” Minho scowled. They both seemed to be on the verge of killing each other. Jisung stepped between them before Minho could move forward. He didn’t know if he was being brave or stupid, but he regretted it the instant Minho’s piercing eyes latched onto his. 

“Look, I don’t know what your guy’s deal is, but maybe we should all try to get to know each other before we kill each other? Plus, you’re not allowed to leave to cafeteria after 12 until the hour is over.” 

“Wow, look at you, knowing the rules,” Seungmin chirped up behind him. Jisung wanted nothing more than to spin around and kick him, but he stayed facing Minho who huffed in annoyance. Then he sighed, and the corners of his lips quirked up just as Hyunjin had described. Minho blinked rapidly, spat out a sarcastic, “oh, okay!” and followed them back to their table. Now, everything felt tense and awkward, especially when Minho sat right next to Jisung with Felix on his other side. Felix’s face was still going through a lot of expressions. It was like he was battling between being happy and furious. He didn’t wear the latter very well. 

“So… you and Felix are brothers…” Chan started off. He squeezed between Changbin and Hyunjin so that he was facing Minho directly.

Minho shot a warning look at Felix when he opened his mouth to answer for him. “Yeah, we are. We were separated pretty early, I can’t believe he still remembers me.” 

“How the hell could I forget?” Felix muttered. His eyes were still raw from crying. Jisung could only imagine what it was like to both have and lose a sibling. And although Minho was probably going through the same trauma, he didn’t look sad or relieved at all. “But hyung, you shouldn’t-” 

“Felix, stop saying that,” Minho said from the corner of his mouth. Felix clicked his tongue in frustration. Jisung wanted to say something, but he really shouldn’t get involved. Jisung reached around Minho and tapped his shoulder. When Felix looked back, Jisung gave him a questioning stare. Felix shook his head and mouthed, ‘I’ll tell you later.’ 

“I’ve been chasing after Felix for a while now, but he always gets into too much trouble before I can get to him,” Minho finally looked at Felix, who straightened up just a little. It was clear that despite his anger, Felix admired him. “Now I’m finally here and you hate me?” Minho scoffed. 

The rest of them were stunned. No one had known Felix had a brother. He’d never mentioned him, never made any hints or clues to suggest that he wasn’t an only child. Jisung felt betrayed. How could Felix keep this vital fact about himself a secret?  _ Why  _ did he keep Minho a secret in the first place? 

“So… Minho. How did you get transferred here in the first place?” Chan asked. He was picking at the hem of his sleeve, trying to fit all the puzzle pieces together in his head. Jisung drummed his fingers on the table, his head was racing. Minho was a complete mystery to him. He wanted to know more. That was his nature after all, he wanted to know it all. 

Minho smiled at the table. It wasn’t a nice smile. It was one that hid everything else behind it. Jisung instantly hated it. “Now that’s a good question and a long story for another time,” His eyes darted up to the security camera then looked at Chan directly. Chan nodded, as if they could hear each other’s thoughts. 

“Okay, well… welcome, I guess,” Chan gestured to the rest of them. “These are my friends that I was talking about, This is Hyunjin,” Hyunjin gave a closed mouthed smile. “Woojin,” Woojin said hello. 

“Seungmin, our camera expert and rule follower,” Seungmin nodded shortly before burying his face back into his work. “Jeongin, our youngest,” Jeongin smiled wide and innocent. He was immune to most of what they were saying. Jisung felt bad whenever they left him out of the loop, but so far they’ve kept his record squeaky clean, and they’d silently agreed to keep it that way. 

Minho finally turned to Jisung again. “I’m Han Jisung, the genius,” He grinned, hopefully genuinely. 

“No, you’re an idiot,” Changbin piped up. Jisung turned and smacked him right away. Minho snorted then covered his face his a hand. 

“Hey! Hyung that’s mean!” Jisung protested loudly. He drape his body over the table dramatically. 

Changbin patted his head. “It’s okay, you’re our idiot,” He said. 

Jisung straightened himself out. He suddenly remembered what he’d wanted to say before Minho arrived, and grinned evilly. Minho was watching him with curious eyes. “So I was saying earlier, that code is about training a new AI type to detect facial expressions when you lie,” The rest of them sat still for a heart beat. They’re mouths were almost hanging open. He turned to spot Chan, and his grin melted right off. His heart dropped when he saw how furious he was. 

“Maybe,” Chan said, his voice was laced with a warning, “you should keep it to yourself until it’s finished.” 

Jisung narrowed his eyes. Why was Chan getting so defensive about the drone in front of their friends? Besides, its not like he told them exactly what was up. He’d basically just called a meeting at their little hideout, that was all. 

“What’s wrong with a little bit of coding? Show me,” Minho said. Jisung raised his eyebrows, a bit surprised. He flicked his eyes to Chan, who shrugged and mouthed, ‘you dug your own grave.’ 

“Er… um… Okay, I’ll show you after classes are finished. Do you know which Barracks you’re in yet?” 

“Yeah,” Minho pulled out a holowatch. He flicked the screen up and displayed his information page to them. “9?” 

“That’s the same as ours!” Felix shouted and clapped happily. It was almost as if he’d completely forgotten to be mad. Knowing him, he’d cry himself to sleep or take it out on Minho again once they were somewhere with less cameras. 

“Wait, we can’t just…  _ let  _ him into the-” Hyunjin stared to say.

“The what?” Chan asked innocently, and Hyunjin slowly shut his mouth and bit his lip. Chan ruffled his hair, and the slip up was forgotten. Minho, who’d been watching intensely, shot his eyes to the camera, nodded once, and changed the subject. Jisung silently thanked whatever god there was that this new guy was intuitive. People like Hyunjin and Jeongin were the most likely to spill their secrets. It’s why they were left out for most of their meetings. He felt bad, he really did. They began to fall into normal talk. 

Jisung complained that his design class was too hard. He didn’t understand why everything had to look the same. If he ever said that to a teacher, instructor, or guard, he’d be taken to the Correction Facility before he could blink. There, he’d get the whole “uniformity is key to survival” for the umpteenth time. Then be would be shocked, poked, stabbed, beaten, bruised, whatever the guards felt like doing until he begged for them to let him go. And of course they wouldn’t until he repeated whatever they said a hundred times over.  

He didn’t say that last part out loud. They weren’t allowed to talk about what happened at the Correction Facility, naturally. It was enough to silence even the most stubborn of people. At least for a while, anyway. Jisung was determined to not let them break him, no matter what. It meant his days there were longer, harsher, definitely more than he’d get if he was like Chan and knew how to hide behind a mask of indifference. Minho seemed good at that too. 

He and Felix were talking quietly between each other. Their heads were nearly touching, and Jisung could only pick up the very tail end of Felix’s words when his voice got a little deeper. Jisung didn’t want to eavesdrop, but when Minho said a little louder than he probably intended to, “Are you sure we can trust them?” He just had to speak up. 

“Excuse you,” Jisung snapped. Minho turned. His eyebrows were creased and his stare dangerous. Jisung gulped down his words before his stupid no-filter mouth filled them up again. “We’ve been here for Felix for months now. He was sad and lonely, and we’re his friends. So you don’t get to say shit like that. How do  _ we  _ know we can trust you? So don’t spit bullshit like that. And where the hell were you all this time huh? Not with Felix, that’s for sure. He’s your brother? Ha,” Jisung scoffed, “try acting like a brother then,” 

“Jisung, c’mon,” Felix said, though it held no bite or anger. Maybe he was just tired. 

Minho studied Jisung through his dark, narrow eyes. Jisung held his ground, but the longer the silence stretched out, the more he squirmed under his skin. “It’s not your problem, don’t get involved,” Minho spat coldly. 

“Hyung,” Felix said in the same tone. It must’ve surprised Minho, he did a double take before opening his mouth to defend himself. “Don’t fight them. Jisung’s right. But you still shoudn’t  _ even be here in the first place!”  _ Felix nearly broke down as he whispered the last sentence. 

Minho shook his head. He was determined, jaw set and gaze steely. Jisung was impressed how many emotions he could display in one face. Minho wasn’t scary per se, but he was intense. Everyone around could feel it. Chan had been eying him warily the whole time he was talking with Woojin. Hyunjin and Jeongin had lost interest in him pretty quickly, and Seungmin was absorbed in his work like usual. But even those who were talking were snatching glances from the corners of their eyes. “You know why I’m here,” Minho said. 

“I’m sticking with my friends, hyung,” Felix replied. Jisung had no idea what that meant. What was even happening? Why was Minho  _ really  _ here? Wasn’t he just a transfer that happened to be Felix’s brother.  _ Unless… he planned this? What are they thinking? They’ll get into so much trouble!  _ Jisung wanted to say something, but the dead stare Minho was giving Felix made him shut his mouth and reevaluate the situation. 

He couldn’t say much, the 9 of them were literally in the middle of the cafeteria. They tended to forget that point most days, and normally would get a few warnings before one of them was dragged off by a teacher. It wasn’t a big enough offence (normally) to get sent to the Correction Center, but being verbally abused by the superintendent was enough scarring for a lifetime. Jisung was normally the one who got dragged out by the collar. So, he opted to save his words, and ask about this weird situation when they were neatly tucked into the room behind the concrete door. 

“Jisung,” Chan tapped his hands which splayed halfway across the table. He looked up at their leader. “What time?” 

“10,” Jisung said without hesitation. “What about Minho?” 

Chan turned to Felix, who nodded his head aggressively. They all silently agreed. Minho was going to be there too. Maybe then they’d get actual answers. 

“Sungmin, what about-” 

“No,” Seungmin shook his head. “I do enough to keep you guys out of trouble.” They all nodded. Seungmin’s track record was squeaky clean. He was top of the class, advanced a whole year, and probably the only one who could leave here with a genuine smile and a good life ahead of him. He was essential, the rest of them were not. They understood. Seungmin risked enough for them, almost more. He kept their secrets, never told a soul, and always watched out for them. 

“There’s too much time from now and then,” Jisung complained. Chan flicked his shoulder and he pouted. He was trying to act a little more funny than usual. He wanted the mood to be smoothed over. He wanted things to be normal again. Minho was like a rock splashing into a lake. He left ripples, and they had yet to settle down. Jisung was sure that once all their shock and confusion faded, Minho would slip into their lives like a fish in that same lake. He had no doubt, as long as Minho stopped being an asshole.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah so... I made them brothers because I always found it adorable that Minho helped Felix w/ dance/Korean and idk, I think they'd be cool as brothers... also it'll help with the emotional punch I'm planning farther along so just bear with me ^0^


	3. All or Nothing

**Chapter 3: All Or Nothing**

Jisung left their lunch hour with an empty stomach and a head filled with several trains of thought that lead to nowhere. What was he even  _ supposed  _ to think? Minho was a mystery to them. Even with him being Felix’s brother, what if he was evil? Brainwashed? What if he was sent because the Institution knew about the drone? Now  _ that  _ thought did not calm down his nerves. 

He spent the rest of his classes worrying at his nails, picking at the skin around them, tapping his feet and chewing on his stylus meant for the computer. Luckily, he never got caught for that last one. He tried to keep his mind from wandering too much, but no matter what, Minho’s face stuck there like glue. 

He wondered how on earth someone could switch between a soulless doll to showing so much emotion it basically poured from him to infect everyone else. How could someone trap him so easily with one look? It wasn’t fair. Also, he hated how Hyunjin’s little quip repeated non stop.  _ Out of my league, ha!  _ He’d think, then go back to worrying. He had a lot of mixed feeling for Minho. Was he a good person? He couldn’t tell. He felt as if Minho could put on whatever face he wanted, and that terrified him. He knew for a fact that Chan and Jeongin were the best at hiding their true feelings, but Minho was on another level. 

It felt like an eternity before the end of the day. Jisung was jittering so much that he was bothering Felix, his desk mate for his last class. All talk of Minho had been silently forbidden and they had sat quietly until the end of class bell rung. It was more of like a high-pitched whine, but whatever. Jisung shot out of his seat, grabbed Felix’s hand before he could open his mouth, and bolted them out the door. The teacher tried to snatch at Jisung and started yelling about the rules on running, but Jisung was far too gone to care. 

“Dude what the hell!” Felix twisted out of his grip and stopped Jisung dead in his tracks by grabbing his messenger bag. Jisung nearly fell on his back but caught himself. “Why’re you so antsy today? I mean more than usual?” 

“How can you  _ not  _ be!” Jisung exclaimed. He just  _ had  _ to know about Minho, that was all. A puzzle was sat in front of him, and he was told not to solve it, of course he’s going insane! The real question, though, was, “why aren’t  _ you  _ excited, it’s your brother! Your flesh and blood! Do you know how rare siblings are nowadays? No one else in our friend group has siblings, no one in our whole barrack has a sibling.” 

Felix opened and closed his mouth like a fish. Then he scowled. “It’s not as cool as its cracked up to be, that’s for sure.” Jisung rolled his eyes, unconvinced. He wanted a sibling, someone, he could rely on for anything. Minho had followed Felix through all these districts. He must’ve suffered a lot for Felix’s sake. He wished someone would be there to do that for him. Not that he wanted to be the cause of someone else’s pain, but to have someone who  _ would  _ do that for you… he could only imagine. 

“Whatever, let’s get going. But seriously, calm down, you’re gonna explode or something.” Felix shook his head. Jisung took a deep, steadying breath. His mind cleared for maybe three seconds tops, then a wave of emotions and thoughts flooded him. He picked one and stuck with it despite the rest clambering for his attention. He was going to tell everyone (even Minho) about the drone and get their opinions. Then they were going to talk about whatever little secrets these Lee brothers were harboring between them, though he suspected they’d come clean and just didn’t want the Institution to catch wind. And  _ that  _ meant that they were about to break the rules big time. He cringed internally at being sent back to the Correction Center. They’d just have to be extra sneaky. 

“Alright, lets go,” Jisung said at last, and they walked and a comfortable pace back to barrack number 9 across the campus. Seungmin and Hyunjin fell into step beside them after a little bit. 

“What do you think Minho was goin’ on about?” Hyunjin wondered out loud. Felix visibly froze. Although Hyunjin seemed a little air headed at times, they all knew that this was directly aimed at Felix. He wanted him to spill those secrets, and would do anything to learn them. “He’s kinda weird, don’t you think Jisung?” 

“Minho..? No?” Jisung answer. Now he was a bit confused. Why was Hyunjin talking to him and not Felix. “If he’s weird then we’re also weird for allowing him into our circle, that’s how it works.” 

Hyunjin shrugged. “I mean, you saw how he can act. How do we know it’s not all a front?” 

Bingo. Felix wrinkled his nose at Hyunjin. “He’s not faking, okay? He’s my hyung, we can trust him damnit.” 

“Okay okay,” Hyunjin smiled easily. “I was just saying. I get he’s your hyung and all, but when was the last time you saw him?” 

Felix wanted to snap, it was clearly written on his face. But he didn’t. He calmed down and looked at their shoes. “I don’t remember, it was a long time ago. Maybe I was 8 or 9.” 

“How’d you guys get seperated?” Jisung asked cautiously. It was like stepping on broken glass. He had to be gentle. 

Felix’s demeanor changed instantly. Jisung cringed at himself. God, now he was going to close them off before they got anything good. “I’ll tell you later.” Jisung and Hyunjin both nodded and dropped it.  _ Not here,  _ it meant.  _ Not where  _ they  _ can hear and see us.  _

“It’s good to have close friends huh?” Jisung said to brighten the mood. It was hard to do that in a drab place like the districts, but they made do. Felix was easily amused, so all Jisung had to do was do an impersonation of a teacher and he’d be wheezing with laughter. So he did just that. 

Minho and their fear were forgotten, just for the short walk through the streets. 

When they did reach barracks 9, Chan was sitting on the concrete step. It came out about six feet from the door and spanned the whole front of the building. He looked up at them when they walked passed. “You guys took your time.” 

“We were talking,” Hyunjin said. 

“Nothing that’ll get you in trouble?” 

Jisung shook his head. “No, we’re not  _ that _ stupid.” 

Chan chuckled softly. “Yeah okay.” 

“Do you know where Minho is?” Felix asked out of the blue. The three of them swivel towards him, but he’s only looking at Chan. Chan was caught off guard, but pointed to the doors. 

“He’s next to Changbin.” Felix nodded and dashed inside. 

“Do you think he’s actually going to find Minho, or is he gonna go oogle Changbin like he used to?” Jisung muttered. 

“I’ll bet you a weeks worth of design class work that it’s Changbin,” Hyunjin whispered back. Jisung slapped his stomach and he doubled over dramatically. 

“C’mon, don’t fight, we just got here,” Seungmin complained. 

“That’s rich, coming from you!” Jeongin piped up somewhere from inside. He stepped out and Seungmin smiled purely. “I’m pretty sure you attack me more than the other members combined.” 

“Yeah, probably,” Seungmin shrugged and tried to reach for Jeongin’s hair. Luckily, he ducked out of the way and ran over to Chan. Chan didn’t do much as Seungmin began chasing Jeongin around the barracks. They only stopped when they noticed a pair of guards making their rounds. They ducked their heads, put their hands down by their sides, and shuffled their feet until the guards were out of sight. Jeongin took a deep breath, his serious expression melting into a big grin. 

“God, I thought I was gonna get hit!” Jeongin said it like it was no big deal. They all laughed, though Jisung and Chan both winced at the mention. Just hearing about it, it felt like bruises were already forming on the back of his neck. They seemed to like to hit him there the most. One time, Chan had accidently exposed his ribs, which were littered with bruises, welts, and old scars. It wasn’t a pretty sight. The night coming back from the Correction Center was always the quietest. They would calm down for a month or so before things returned to semi normal. But they could never forget, especially those who knew the horrors inside that tall stone building on the farthest side of the campus. 

Jisung, Chan, Felix, and Changbin had gone there the most. Woojin managed to get through it with minimal damage, considering his offence was little and he compiled without any kick. Hyunjin had been threatened several times to be sent there, but somehow, he always got off the hook. They’d never tell him, but one time Chan had taken his blame and gotten sent there in his place. 

So they laughed awkwardly at their naive little Jeongin, who’s smile was genuine and sweet. Chan called them back over so they wouldn’t get into more trouble, and they sat in a circle, discussing the days events. Chan easily directed the conversation around anything relating to Minho, and Jisung was both grateful and frustrated. He just wanted it to be 10:00 already!! 

Everything seemed to be ticking by so slowly. He pulled out his tablet and tried to do some work, but nothing would fit together. So he started making a 3D rendering of what mountains should look like, or at least the ones they showed him in pictures. He didn’t know if they all had snowy white caps or pointed tops, but he’d never seen one in real life, so who was he to judge? 

The sun began to dip below the horizon and Chan frowned at it, like the sun had personally pissed him off. He was staring pretty intensely at the sky for about five minutes, watching as the last rays of night disappeared and night time started to crawl over the land. “Hyung, is there something wrong?” Jisung asked. Chan turned his head swiftly to him. He looked like skeleton, being lit up with Jisung’s green hologram lights. 

“Huh? I’m fine…” He trailed off, and gave the sky another scrutinizing glare. It was around this time where they had to go inside and take roll for curfew. It was only 8, curfew was at 9:30. But being outside was obviously a big no no. And whatever the Institution said was law, and to not be questioned. 

When they finally went inside, Jisung found Minho alone in the downstairs common room. This room was a big space in the middle of the compound. The ceiling was open, and the second floor balcony could be seen. There were only five couches, no screens or books in sight. Just couches and a coffee table. There were four other people sitting there, but they all avoided Minho like the plague. Jisung didn’t blame him, it was their fault. They were known as troublemakers, as  _ others,  _ and people didn’t like that. 

“Did Felix come talk to you?” Jisung asked. Minho tilted his head up at Jisung. He looked almost completely relaxed, besides the fact that his eyes were like black holes taking in information and never letting in go. Jisung was sure Minho could rip his soul clean from his physical form with just a glare, so he averted his eyes. 

“Yeah, he did, briefly.”

“DId he uh… say where he was going after that?” Jisung risked a glance at Minho, who blinked at him rapidly. That seemed to be a weird little habit, were his eyes dry or something? Without saying a word, Minho pointed up to the balcony. All the room doors could be seen from where they sat, so Jisung knew instantly where Felix was. He grinned. 

“Hyunjin was right,” He muttered. 

“About what?” 

“Oh, nothing, I’m sure Felix will tell you,” Jisung waved him off. “Anyway, lets go get something to eat,” 

“They actually feed you?” Minho said sarcastically. Jisung laughed. God he hoped that was sarcasm, else Minho had a pretty wicked view of the Institution. Jisung wouldn’t really blame him, especially if he had to get transferred, which meant that he’d defected at least 10 times. That couldn’t be easy to bear. 

“There’s a cafeteria back there,” Jisung pointed to two sets of double doors next to the stairs. 

“Oh, then let’s eat,” Minho laughed himself off the couch and stretched out his limbs. Jisung turned on his heels and led him towards the cafeteria. 

Of course the food was bland and tasteless. He one time got to taste an actual strawberry, and everything ever since had been horrendous. He refused to eat for a week once, and then they legit force fed him… so he wasn’t going to do that again. 

“There’s nothing good here, ever,” Jisung whispered to Minho once they’d gotten their food. They sat down with Chan and Woojin. Hyunjin, Seungmin, and Jeongin were off to who knows where doing who knows what. Minho chuckled at his stupid comment and nodded in agreement. He looked like he wanted to say something else, but thought better of it. 

“There’s a lot I wish I could tell everyone,” Minho said to them. “But later.” Minho was getting the hang of their code systems already. Who told him? 

“Let’s just say that this is a downgrade.” That was a fine line to walk, but Minho just smiled confidently. 

Dinner was not a place for talking. They ate, got out of that horribly too bright place, and retreated to their individual rooms for the night. Before they all parted ways, they each exchanged a look. Okay. 10:00, the room behind the concrete. Chan put himself in charge of Minho, despite Felix’s complaints. There was no way Chan would risk the two of them getting caught. It would be Chan, or none of them were going. It was impossible to argue with that, though nobody liked it. 

Minho was nearly confused the whole time they talked without talking. They used a variety of hand gestures, waving, and nearly telepathic powers to communicate. Minho just watched, wide eyed and mouth slightly open. He looked a lot softer than he normally did. Jisung kind of liked this Minho better. 

Soon, their curfew hit, and they were required to stand in front of their rooms while (surprisingly it was Chan on rotation tonight, that made things way easier) someone scanned a little barcode tattoo on their wrist to make sure they were there. Once they were scanned, Seungmin hit his magical little button that gave them one minute of no cameras. That’s all the time they needed. 

The race outside was a little ridiculous. Chan made sure to scan them last so everyone else was already inside their rooms while the 9 of them were bolting through the corridors, down the steps with bare feet, and dashing out the door. Jisung took a hard right the instant he was an inch out the door and immediately blended himself into the walls and shadows. They moved fast. One after the other, they scooted along the wall, occasionally waiting for spotlights to pass and guards to run by without glancing at them once. 

Jisung held his breath every time, despite sneaking out nearly every other day. No matter how many times they didn’t get caught, all it would take was one guard who actually cared about their job just a little more to swivel their head in the right direction at the right time, and their operation would be over.  _ They’d  _ be over, most likely killed on the spot. Jisung never knew if he was exaggerating that or not. The Institution might literally shoot them. It was a rational fear, okay? 

So he never breathed until they passed around the corner of their building and were plunged into moon lit darkness. He didn’t know exactly who was behind him, but hands gripped his shoulders. Jisung had somehow been elected to lead their little pack whenever they escaped together, so now it was his job to run his hands along the wall until he found the thin, impossibly small crack in the wall. He sighed in relief. 

“What’s going—mnf,” Minho had begun to talk, and Chan had instantly clapped a hand over his mouth. There was no talking in the hallways, didn’t Minho know the rules? 

Jisung managed to wiggle the concrete plate from the wall, and Changbin reached around and helped him pry the door open. It took some effort, but finally, it swung open, and Jisung hurriedly jumped  inside. There were still broken fragments of the drone, even the smashed camera. Everyone’s eyes zeroed in on the body of the drone the second they walked in. 

“Holy  _ shit,  _ this is what you wanted to show us?” Changbin sputtered. He stepped over to the drone in a daze. Minho and Chan came in just as Changbin picked the thing up. Minho looked at the drone with disinterest. Chan was giving him a weird look though. They knew something. 

Once the door was closed, they all let out a collective breath. Hyunjin put a hand to his heart and tilted his head back like he’d just been running a mile. Seriously, how dramatic could he get? Felix and Minho instantly started trying to say things while Jeongin, bless his soul, asked what the hell was going on. 

“Listen, listen!” Jisung spoke over them. “Listen to me!” They finally calmed enough for him to show off the drone. “Yesterday, Channie hyung found this drone. I took it apart and found a camera inside. Anyway, I was thinking we could refurbish the parts and make our own spy drone, y’know? I’ve been trying to map out the guard’s routes, here,” He passed out his old tablet that had crashed last time. It should work now. Everyone was completely silent now, Jisung had the stage. 

“All i’m saying is that getting in here and getting out is a crapshoot. For all we know, there could be a hundred guards waiting for us on the other side of that door right now, and we’d never know! We’re blind in here, and that’s dangerous,” He explained. Woojin was nodding. Felix was glancing from the drone to Minho, and Chan was glaring at Minho like he’d killed his best friend. 

“Jisung, we don’t even know where that drone came from,” Changbin said. 

“Yeah, we do, actually,” Chan piped up.  _ What?  _ Jisung’s brain supplied helpfully. He  _ knew?!  _ Betrayal coursed through him.  _ He knew and he didn’t tell me?  _ Jisung was so angry that it didn’t even occur to him that he couldn’t tell him for obvious reasons. But not even a sign that he knew? Nothing? That wasn’t like him! 

Chan grabbed Minho’s bicep and tried to push him forward. He refused to move and wrapped his hands around the strap of his messenger bag (why did he bring it? _ ) _ . That just made him more guilty. Minho sighed after everyone had stared at him in tense silence for a long heart beat. He walked slowly over to where the drone sat, Jisung and Changbin parting ways to not even touch him. Minho picked up the drone and flicked one of the legs. “What the hell do you want me to say, Chan?” He said, “Yeah, It’s my drone-” Jisung and Hyunjin gasped, “-you should’ve let me and Felix explain first. Now everything’s out of order.” 

“How the hell did you get your hands on a drone, let alone red paint!?” Jisung grabbed Minho’s shoulders and shook him out of a pure adrenaline rush. “How is this possible! Who the hell are you!” 

“I can’t believe you’re more fascinated with red paint!” Minho said, amused. Jisung didn’t stop shaking him though, until Minho got angry and pushed him off. “Let me explain okay!” 

They all grew silent and still. Even Felix, who probably knew the whole spiel, sat on a table and glared at Minho with the intensity of a spotlight. 

Minho took a deep breath and glanced all around, but he completely avoided their faces. Then he looked at the drone for a second before setting it down. He messed with his hair, then his nail beds, shuffled his feet, then finally grew still. Jisung wanted to shout at him to hurry to fuck up. He barely moved a muscle, but Chan’s hand shot in front of him. He huffed, irritated and wanting to  _ know  _ already! 

“Okay, so… I don’t know what they teach you in these district places, but from what I’ve seen, most of it is wrong.” Jisung wanted to argue, but he really couldn’t. Even he was aware of some of the lies they told just to keep order. “The districts are quarantined sections of people. They cut you off from everyone else into smaller groups so it’d be easier to manage. What you guys call ‘The Institution’ is the start of a totalitarian government system that has taken over twenty years to perfect.” None of them said a word. Jisung, for once, didn’t have any. “They take kids from their homes at a young age. I bet most of you don’t even remember your parents. They train them to be whatever they need, mostly engineers, coders, or foot soldiers. They make you complacent, they take away certain colors that are agitants, like red, and will threaten anyone who doesn’t conform to their expectations… I’m sure you all know about that last bit,” Minho muttered at the end. Jisung found himself nodding. He caught Jeongin looking a little confused, and suddenly, Jisung wished that Jeongin wasn’t there. 

“Felix and I were saved for a little bit. Our mother kept us a secret, but of course, the ‘system’ found out. Felix was taken to district 3.” 

“Why didn’t you get taken as well?” Jisung asked. Chan pinched his arm to get him to shut up, but Jisung swatted at him. Minho’s eyes held a depth of sadness he’d never seen, and Felix had gotten very quiet and still, his knees were folded to his chest. 

“My mother basically threw me out. You know, whenever there’s a totalitarian government, there’s always rebel groups. There’s a lot of them actually. Nearly anywhere you go outside the districts are rebel camps and territories. Unfortunately, the situation outside of the districts isn’t so good. They’re always fighting over supplies and morals. Anyway, I got picked up by a rebel group called Bangtan. They’re a big group. It’s lead by seven people, and they have hundreds of followers. So one little kid wasn’t gonna make much of a difference to them.” Minho paused. He still wouldn’t look at their faces. Jisung’s mind had blown a fuse and he couldn’t think at all.  _ Rebels? We’re being trained to be used by a controlling government?  _

“They tried to get me to forget about everything, but that never worked,” Felix piped up from his spot. 7 heads looked up at him. “So I knew… sorry for not… y’know… telling you,” He muttered. Jisung wanted to be mad, but his heart wasn’t in it. Instead there was a sense of dread that was slowly crushing down on his chest the more he listened to them. His whole life was fabricated. His chance at free will, the thing he wanted most in his life no matter what, was nearly impossible. 

“But the  _ point  _ is that Minho hyung,” Felix said stronger this time. “Shouldn’t be here! He should be with Bangtan instead of rushing into a fucking district like an idiot! How’d you get the ID chip? How do you even have a holo tablet that’s up to date on all the software? How’d you get a  _ drone  _ for christ sake?” 

“Bangtan,” He said simply, “I’m telling you, they’ve got resources and connections. And it’s not like these districts are unhackable, it just takes a lot to get through them.” 

“So are you working with this rebel group now? What for?” Jisung crossed his arms. 

Minho hesitated before answering. “No, I cut off from the group when they said I couldn’t infiltrate a district. I stole some of their tech and went stray,” 

“Is that some weird term that we don’t know about?” Changbin asked this time. He’d been strangely quiet, his eyebrows pointed down and a scowl deepening by the second. 

“Going stray? It just means you’re cutting from a group.” Minho stated matter-of-fact. 

“Why’d you do it?” Felix whispered. He was on the verge of tears again, either that or he was beyond pissed. Minho narrowed his eyes, like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. 

“To get you out, dipshit,” 

“Me?” Felix sat forward. Jisung had a sinking feeling in his gut. Felix could go right now. He bet Minho had a plan already in place to get the two of them as far away as possible. Fear rose up like bile in his throat. 

“Yes, you,” Minho wasn’t looking at anyone else. It was like the rest of them didn’t exist. Jisung sort of understood it. Minho and Felix were brothers, Minho was trying to get his younger brother back and away from this awful place. But if all Minho was saying was true, Jisung wanted out too, and from the look of it, they all did. Would Minho take Felix and leave? Jisung wouldn’t blame him. 

Felix set his jaw. “I told you this before,” he said. Chills ran up Jisung’s spine, he’d never heard Felix sound this pissed off before. “I’m sticking with my friends, it’s 9 or none.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	4. Little White Lies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's just some things you shouldn't say. 
> 
> *WARNING* Panic attack/hyperventilating triggers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yoo so I'm trying to kick the plot off the ground but y'know, gotta establish some things before we can move on from this scene...

** Chapter 4: Little White Lies **

Minho hadn’t said any more about what he was planning. He and Felix were having a staring match, neither refusing to back down. Jisung wanted to interfere like before, but Chan kept a firm grip on the collar of his shirt, and he didn’t dare try to break away. It was a tense break in their talking. No one dared to day a word, even when the two brothers stopped silently fighting. Chan was using his free hand to rub his face. Every minute, the purple crescents under his eyes darkened, as if in time with the sky. Jisung wanted to joke about it, but no one was in the mood. So he kept it to himself for once. 

Chan let him go when he was certain Jisung wouldn’t try and fight someone. He still wanted to, but maybe he should just stop trying to interfere and let things play out. That was hard for him, considering he wanted to a least feel like he was in control of the situation. Today was the most confusing day of his life. 

Jisung turned to ask Chan about it, but paused when he saw their leader’s face. He was staring at his feet, clearly talking through something in his head. Did he have any secrets to spill too? Jisung brushed that idea off, Chan would tell them, right? He’d at least tell  _ him?  _ He couldn’t be sure, after all, he hadn’t said a thing about the drone and Minho until now. But he could still trust Chan. He knew it. Every fiber of his being wanted him to have faith in Chan. If he didn’t, he’d be lost. 

Chan was their pillar. As much as each of them tried to pull their own weight, they knew for a fact they’d crumble if it wasn’t for Chan. He made sure they all kept safe, but knew that stifling them would make him no better than the Institution. Chan tried his best, and that’s all Jisung cared about. But he was worried. What if Chan let him down and left him in the dark?

Finally, it was Changbin who broke the silence. “So? What’re you gonna do, Minho?” 

Minho was trapped. They were trapping him. He clearly wasn’t going to get his way, that was for sure. If he tried to leave with Felix, Felix would refuse, and there was no way he’d go back without his little brother, right? Jisung mimicked Changbin and crossed his arms, trying to look as intimidating as possible. It was hard. Minho was taller so he had to look up at him. Minho locked eyes with him for a second and Jisung flinched in surprise. 

“I’ll think about it, okay?” Minho finally grumbled, “This put a major wrench in my plans, y’know?” 

Felix jumped off the table and pulled Minho into a hug. “I’m sorry hyung…” He trailed off, “but I can’t leave them behind. They don’t want to stay here either, right?” They all nodded and muttered a chorus of agreements. From where Jisung was standing, he couldn’t see Minho’s face, just his back and shoulders which nearly engulfed Felix’s frame. He saw Minho stiffen before he said, “What about Seungmin? You said 9, but Seungmin wouldn’t want to-” 

“He’s one of us before he’s one of them,” Chan said confidently. 

Minho pulled away from Felix to turn to Chan. His eyebrows scrunched together, confused. “But he’s not even here, how do you know that?” 

“I just do. He helps us by staying behind. Like today, he’s good at coding and hacking, so he shuts off the cameras in the dorms. Once we get out, I’ll send him a message to turn them off again.” 

“Oh… I didn’t realise, I thought for sure he’d be the one to betray you,” Minho said. Hyunjin snorted, gaining Minho’s attention. The two of them hadn’t exchanged a single word before. 

“We let you in here and we just met you. If anyone, it’d be you to betray us. Seungmin might not seem like much, but he’s got our backs, and we’ve got his. If we leave, he leaves with us. If Felix leaves, we leave with him, you got that? No one gets left behind.” 

“Your pack mentality will literally be the death of you,” Minho dead panned. Hyunjin raised his eyebrows like he wanted to fight, but he didn’t say anything. Afterall, that was a hard thing to respond to. 

“I guess it’s different in rebel groups,” Jisung piped up. God, why did he keep drawing Minho’s attention? He hated it whenever Minho looked at him, it made him squirm under his skin. It was hard to concentrate. “I mean… it’s not like groups like ours are common in districts either… we’re kind of frowned upon actually? How do I describe this…?” He stared helplessly at Chan, who just nodded like it made all the sense in the world. “Let’s just say that we’re not like any other group, we’re like family.” 

“Family huh?” Minho glanced at Felix with a near accusatory stare. Jisung felt a twinge of anger, and wanted to punch Minho right in his pretty face. “Guess I don’t know much about family, or friends.” He sighed, his shoulders slumping and his head hanging. It reminded Jisung that Minho was human just like the rest of them. He was just another person trying to survive. 

“Felix, are you sure?” Minho asked again, “We could get out right now, I’ve got most of it covered, we could be out in a week-” 

“I made up my mind hyung, they’re coming with me, got it? We can figure out a way to leave together, I’m sure we can,” he voice turned pleading, “hyung, please, you have to help them too, they don’t deserve to stay here,” He lowered his voice. Changbin and Chan figured out what he was going to say and rushed over to Hyunjin and Jeongin and began to herd them to the farthest side of the room. They wanted to know what was up, but Felix was talking too softly for them to hear now. “They don’t deserve to die here, and they  _ will  _ die here if they stay. I don’t think you understand them, they’re not like you, they can’t pretend,” Felix’s eyes flicked to Chan. “Chan’s on his 7th chance. He’ll get transferred soon, and probably get lost. I’ll… I’ll follow him if he does,” 

Minho shifted his weight to one foot and swept a hand through his hair, thinking. He scanned the 7 of them, landing on Jisung last. It made Jisung freeze just for a second, and then he instantly hated himself for being caught off guard again. “This won’t be easy…” Minho muttered. 

“We’ll help you,” Jisung instantly volunteered, “Right?” He turned to Chan, who gave them a thumbs up. “We’re not idiots even though Changbin keeps saying that. After all, we’ve never gotten caught, well, for the most part…” 

“How many times have you gone to that Correction Center place?” 

“How do you even  _ know  _ about it, if you’ve never lived in a district before?” Jisung snapped back skeptically. 

“Someone from Bangtan was a stray from district 7, he told me all about it, and he’s the one who helped me get the drone and this,” Minho reached into his bag and produced a holo tablet that was exactly like the school issued ones. 

“Why’d you bring that here!” Jisung panicked and lunged for it. “Those things have tracking devices and cameras!” 

Minho fended him off with one arm, which was a little pathetic on Jisung’s part. But he wouldn’t stop. Minho really  _ was  _ trying to kill them, huh? 

“Calm down you hyperactive squirrel! This is mine not their’s!” Minho shouted. Jisung stilled like he’d been dunked into freezing water. 

“Wh-what did you…?” He started to say. Felix was the first to burst out laughing, quickly followed by the rest until Jisung’s face was heating up and he slapped Minho’s arm. 

“What?” Minho grinned for the first time that night, it would never cease to catch Jisung off guard. It was a pretty smile. “That’s what everyone calls you, right? Squirrel? Have you ever even  _ seen  _ a squirrel before?” 

They all shook their heads in unison. “We saw them in a picture,” Felix piped up. Minho gave them a pitying sigh. 

“Well, the world out there is full of squirrels. There’s probably a lot of things you’ve never seen…” 

“I mean, there’s plenty to see in the fields, they just keep the animals out for our protection?” Jeongin said. 

“Yes but… you do know about the dome right?” Minho asked. Jisung felt that little stab of anxiety in his chest. The what? 

“Minho, that’s enough,” Chan came over and whispered something in Minho’s ear. They shot each other a look, then Minho’s whole demeanor changed. It was mind boggling. 

He smiled easily and chirped, “Forget I said anything,” 

“Ha, you’re joking right?” Hyunjin stretched out his limbs, pretending to be uninterested. “So what’s this about a dome?” 

Chan facepalmed but didn’t respond. Minho had become as still as a statue with a weird half smile stuck on his face. Felix rolled his eyes. “Hyung, why can’t you just tell them?” 

“Because, we shouldn’t.” Chan said. 

“Tell us what?” Jisung stepped forward. So Chan  _ was  _ hiding something from him. “What about the dome. Seriously, stop hiding stuff from us just because we’re younger!” 

“I’ll tell you later, okay?” Chan sighed, exasperated. That was the final string for the three of them. Changbin, curse his soul, had probably already been told. He took a step back when Jisung, Hyunjin, and Jeongin all flooded Chan until he was retreated into a corner. 

“Should we stop them?” Minho asked Felix, who laughed. 

“Hyung, tell us!” Jisung demanded. Chan bit his lip and shook his head. Jisung grabbed his shoulders and shook his slightly. “Will it hurt us? Will they hurt us if we know?” 

“Maybe?” Chan shrugged. “I just… It’s just… I didn’t think this situation would get this horrible. I didn’t know about the Institution’s intentions, so I thought… I thought I was going to protect you from them. If you don’t know, they can’t hurt you, okay? So just stop asking.” 

“That makes no sense!” Hyunjin hissed. “Just tell us now! We need to know everything!” 

“But it won’t change your minds, it’ll just… just break you more,” Chan was pleading with them. 

Jisung stepped back. Break him more? That’d be hard to do. At this point, he knew that the Institution was basically a lie. He thinks he’s taking it well, honestly. He kind of already suspected that most of what they were being taught, history wise, was false. “What more could they do?” He asked. Chan’s face said it all.  _ A lot. They could still do a lot.  _ Maybe he didn’t want to know. Ignorance was bliss, right? 

But Hyunjin and Jeongin didn’t let up. After a minute of pestering, Chan caved. “Okay okay! I’ll tell you,” they fell silent. “It’s about the sky.” 

Jisung tilted his head. “What about it?” He was shushed by 8 people. 

“That’s what Minho was talking about. The sky is fake,” Jisung sucked in a breath and suddenly, he regretted asking. “Everything you see in the sky in a hologram. They’ve completely cut us off from the world. We’re literally living in a bubble.” 

“The  _ sky?”  _ Hyungin gawked, “you mean the sun and the moon are fake? The clouds? It’s all… an illusion?” Chan nodded sadly. Hyunjin sat down on the floor with his head on his knees. For once, Jisung wanted to join him. Minho wasn’t kidding, everything he knew, everything he  _ saw  _ was fake. All of it. They’d lied and cut them off from everyone. A cold chill spread through him and hollowed out his feelings. He felt numb. 

“There’s a reason they never let you go passed the fields,” Minho stated, “it’s to not bump into the barrier. Beyond that is the real world. Everything in here is a fabrication by the Institution. They lied to you, saying that the districts are the only things left. They’re not. Right outside this dome the world is teeming with life.” 

Jisung barely heard him, but his words hit hard. Doubt, fear, anger, and helplessness crashed in on him. A lie. His world was a lie. Even the sky, even the clouds, even the sun that he thought he could rely on to be real was fake.  _ Everything…  _ Jisung slowly sank to the floor with Hyunjin and covered his ears to block out Minho’s ramblings and Chan trying to calm them down. It was all too much to handle in one night.

_ Lies, everything was a lie! I’ve been taught lies my whole life!  _ He tried to think back to what it was like living outside of district 8, but he couldn’t. It was like all that existed was this place,  _ only  _ this place. On the other side of campus was where he’d grown up. He’d never known his mother’s face, or known if he had siblings. He could barely remember what it was like before starting school, before training, before learning how to code for the first time. It was like his memories started the first time he’d been sent off to the Correction Center for yelling at a teacher and calling her a stupid bitch. (who’s bright idea was it to teach him that word when he was 7?) 

So all of this was just raising him to be part of a never ending mass of mindless humans doing their dirty work? He knew Minho had said it before, but it hadn’t really  _ hit  _ him that that was what was going on. But if all of his teachings and upbringings were for the purpose of a government system that ultimately (probably) wanted to take over the world, then who was he really? What was he supposed to be? If his life was a lie, then what was he to consider truth? How was he supposed to think? Did his free will exist in the first place, or was that, too, a manipulation by the Institution? Were they fucking with him right now? He snapped his head up, startling the watching party, and bolted to his feet. 

Cameras, where were the cameras?? Where were they? Were they watching him right now? Did they know!? Of course they would! They were toying with him right now, weren’t they? He tore through the shelves and pressed his hands along the walls, trying to find little holes, cracks,  _ anything  _ where a lens could fit. 

“Jisung what are you doing?!” Chan shouted when he wouldn’t stop. 

“There’s got to be cameras here!” He snapped back. “They’re fucking with us, I know it! This has got to be some joke and we’re the punch line guys. They’re just faking that they don’t know!” 

“Jisung, no they’re not,” Chan put a hand on his shoulder. Was Chan even real? How did he know this wasn’t a simulation? He knew those existed, they’d made him work on a full immersion VR system once. Was he trapped in one now? 

“How do I know?” He pushed Chan’s hand away. “How do I know this is real, when the sky’s not real, when our lives aren’t real! We’re not  _ real! _ ” Jisung cried, he felt a well of tears behind his eyes, but he held them back. His throat closed. Bile rose in his throat. His head felt foggy but sharp at the same time. The beginnings of a headache was working its way through his skull. It was a light pulse, like someone was flicking him in the head.

“How do we know we’re real hyung? They’ve lied to us! Everything is a lie, so why shouldn’t we be too? How do I know I’m not stuck in a cruel prank? How do we  _ know?”  _ He was speaking rapidly, almost too fast to hear himself. “They’ve got cameras everywhere hyung, who’s to say they don’t have them here?” tears started to drip down his face this time, he couldn’t keep them back. He felt nauseous, at least that was a real feeling that was happening to him. His breathing became shallow. 

“Oh shit, Jisung, you’re… what’s happening?” 

Jisung wiped his face. He could barely breathe. “Nothings…. Nothings happening hyung, I-I’m fine.” He couldn’t get air into his lungs. What  _ was  _ happening? Did the Institution shut off his lungs? Could they do that? It felt like when they plunged him in a tank of cold water. He couldn’t breathe.

“You are  _ not  _ fine,” Minho barged in front of Chan. Jisung took a step back. This was all Minho’s fault. If he hadn’t come here, Jisung wouldn’t know. He could live in peaceful unawareness for the rest of his life. Now, he’d be looking over his shoulder even more. Why couldn’t he breathe? 

“Jisung, you’re hyperventilating,” Minho said calmly. Jisung didn’t really know what that meant, it sounded bad though. “Oi, look at me,” Minho lightly took his jaw and turned Jisung’s head so that Jisung was forced to focus on him. “You can’t breathe because you’re panicking. Focus on me, okay?” Jisung nodded, what else was he supposed to do? He felt like he was going to pass out. 

“Cup your hands in front of your face,” Minho grabbed Jisung’s hands, but he pulled them away and did what he was told by himself. “Now, breathe in for 10 seconds, hold it, then breathe out, slowly,” Jisung nodded rapidly, and shut his eyes. All he had to do was this. “Don’t think about anything else, just focus on breathing.” Jisung latched onto Minho’s voice. He was speaking calmer and quieter than he or anyone had all night. There wasn’t any malicious intent behind his words. “That’s it, just keep doing that until it goes away. Just keep breathing.”

It felt like a lifetime before Jisung could breathe properly again. He peeled open one of his eyes to see Minho staring at him with concern. Minho blinked at him once, and gave him the smallest of smiles. 

“I’m fine now,” Jisung said. If he wasn’t so shell shocked and exhausted, he’d be so fucking embarrassed. He couldn’t believe Minho had gotten him to calm down. Was it really his fault? Was any of this his fault? 

“Jisung! I-I’m sorry-” Chan rushed up to him, Jisung flinched at the sudden movement. Minho actually put up an arm to keep Chan from barreling into him. “I didn’t think… I tried to…” 

Jisung ran a hand through his hair. His bangs were a little sweaty and gross. “It’s… whatever… I over reacted,” he muttered. 

“I mean, Hyunjin almost had the same reaction…” Chan said. The three of them twisted their neck to see that Hyunjin and Jeongin were getting over this in their own ways. Both of them had been very quiet while Jisung had basically demolished their hideout in a fit of paranoia. Changbin was trying to comfort Hyunjin with hugs, while Felix talked with Jeongin, who, despite it all, would occasionally flick a smile on his face as if their worlds weren’t ruined a few minutes ago. 

“Anyone would’ve thought the same, Jisung. We don’t know where the Institution have its eyes and ears,” Minho went for a smile, which Jisung appreciated but couldn’t return. “I doubt they’re in here though, I’m confident that they’re not. This place looks like an old storage room. How’d you find it?” 

Jisung perked up. Finally, something he had expertise in. “I was walking back here one day, because I’d never done that before, and I was running my hand along the wall. I felt the tiniest shift in the concrete. It took forever to figure out that this was a door.” 

“This place is fucking cool, considering how shit your guys’s situation is,” Minho grinned. Jisung smiled this time too. Something about Minho’s smile put his at ease. It was getting easier to look at him without feeling like his soul was about to get ripped out. 

“Yeah, it really is.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! For anyone who skipped the chapter due to triggers, Basically, Jisung, Hyunjin, and Jeongin learn about the sky being fake. Jisung starts to get paranoid that the Institution is messing with him and doubts his own reality. It seems that the hyungs already knew about it?? What else are they hiding? (And ofc Felix knew about it)


	5. As If We Don't Exist

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this ones a lil' shorter, just wanted to establish a thing and get it out of the way OWO

**Chapter: 5 As If We Don’t Exist**

 

Jisung slept like a stone that night. Everything in his mind, everything was flipped. But the instant his cheek hit his pillow, he was out. His dreams were rare and far between, and tonight was no exception. Though the day had been chaotic, the moment he shut his eyes, he relaxed and allowed himself to be cradled by blankets and pillows. Comfort, even though his bed was a hard mattress that gave little. He at least could let darkness be his friend, and not think for a few hours. 

Those few hours came to an abrupt end when his alarm clock sprang to life and jolted him to life. He groaned and rolled over, not wanting to start his day. Wasn’t today a Saturday? Jisung sat straight up.  _ Today is Saturday?  _ He rolled off his bed and onto the floor, rummaging through his bag to find his holo tablet that was the root of this evil ringing. Once his alarm was snoozed, he checked the date. Yep, a Saturday. 

Jisung hated Saturdays, and now that he knew the truth, he would probably hate them even more. So he spread out his limbs on the floor and tried to sing into the ground for a full 8 minutes until his alarm started blaring again. Fuck this. Jisung rolled back over, shut his alarm off for good, and slowly rose as if from a coffin. He looked at his tiny barred window. Thin streams of golden light were sleeping through. A shot of anger pierced through him. He stood up and shut the blinds to the fake world. The lights flickered on shortly after, and he could hear the beginnings of life from outside his door. Jisung dressed himself in his uniform before sliding open the thin door. He stepped into the mass of people, mostly teenagers, all heading towards the communal bathrooms or the cafeteria. Jisung would not think he could stomach any food, so he decided brushing his teeth and skipping one meal would be his morning. 

He felt a tap on his shoulder and whirled around to find Minho blinking at him with the smallest, dumbest smile. His hair was fluffed up and messy. Jisung nearly choked. “Hi?” he waved a little bit. Minho was kind of  _ close  _ to him. Didn’t he ever hear about personal space? 

“Hi,” Minho replied. “I’m not sure what’s going on. It’s Saturday right? We have classes on Saturday?” 

Jisung shrugged. “We have classes for half days on Saturdays, and like… combat training for the other half...” 

“Ahh… I see…” Minho nodded slowly, a scowl resting on his features. Jisung got the implications too. Were they training them to be an army? Or like a back-up army just in case? 

“Don’t worry about it,” Jisung said, “it’s no big deal, you’ll get the hang of it,” he patted his shoulder. It felt awkward so he stopped. Minho raised an eyebrow. Jisung glanced up to the camera over Minho’s shoulder.  _ Can’t say anything now, can’t say anything until we’re back behind the concrete door.  _

Minho understood of course. “I’ve got to show you this thing I’ve been working on.” 

Jisung raised his eyebrows in surprise. “What really?” 

“Yeah, I’ll show you during breakfast,” Minho shrugged. By this time, they’d been shoved along and into the bathrooms. Morning routines were simple. Brush your teeth, wash your face, do your business if you had to, then get out, because there were 10 other people waiting for a turn. So Jisung was in and out in less than 5 minutes and rushing down the stairs to the cafeteria. 

Minho seemed a bit slower. By the time Jisung had sat down to eat (yeah right), Minho was trudging through the double doors, hair still floofy and still scowling at the world. Though when he caught sight of Jisung, his eyes lit up.  _ Oh that’s not fair…  _ Jisung could  _ not  _ handle that this early in the morning. He lowered his head to stare at his food instead, very aware of his heart not doing what he told it to. He schooled his emotions back into mild disinterest right before Minho plopped his tray of bland, nearly gray, cafeteria food. 

He also pulled his holo tablet out of his bag and set up the screen to display layers upon layers of coding. “I’m sending this to you,” He said. 

“What’s it for?” Jisung reached out and spun the configuration around. He couldn’t understand a single word of it. Encrypted code? The Institution had sensors to block that sort of stuff. 

“It’ll make  _ your  _ code a lot easier,” Minho said. He pulled the tablet towards himself. “I’ll send you the files.” 

_ “My  _ code?” Jisung emphasised the same word. He ran through a list of everything he’d ever coded for, which was a lot. Basically  _ all  _ his time was spent coding, building, and modelling things. But most of that was basic stuff, pretty standard. The only thing that was specifically  _ his  _ was- it clicked in his brain as Minho shut the program off. He nodded.

“Okay, yeah, what does it do?” 

Minho grinned a little wickedly. “It keeps everything safe. I’m giving it out to everyone.” 

“That’s cool, it’ll help a lot with my design class.” Jisung tried to hide his excitement. Instead, he channeled his nervous energy into tapping his foot on the ground. 

“What’re you guys up to?” A tray slammed down, brownish Gray oatmeal sloshing over the bowl and spilling onto the table. “Shit,” Chan muttered, and sat down. 

“Hyung,” Minho turned to Chan. Jisung was nearly blindsided by the fact Minho would so casually refer to Chan as ‘hyung,’ they met like, yesterday, and were still on shaky terms? Though by how Minho was acting now, Jisung wouldn’t be surprised if he helped them escape. Could Minho’s mood really flip on it’s head like that? He should ask Felix. “-there’s this cool code that I made, I’ll send you a file, please use it.” 

“What?” Chan glanced at Jisung, who nodded assuringly. He shrugged and smiled. “Sure, whatever. I won’t even ask.” 

“It’s easier if you don’t, honestly,” Minho sighed. He looked at his food, grimaced, and pushed it away. It was a little worrying, it he didn’t eat, then the Institution would notice eventually and force him. Maybe Jisung should tell him that..? 

He opened his mouth to say something, but hyunjin interrupted him. “You should really eat, especially today,” he put his own food down and stirred around his porridge-looking-stuff. “We’ll be doing a lot of running, lot’s of push ups, lots of everything, so y’know, unless you want to throw up later…” 

Minho glared down at his bland food. “Why me…” He muttered. 

Jisung snorted, “why any of us?” 

“We’re the lucky ones,” Chan laughed, completely sarcastic to the point where they couldn’t tell it was sarcasm. 

“Look, today’s gonna suck, but let’s just get it over with,” Hyunjin said, and downed all his food as fast as possible. While he was eating, Seungmin, Woojin, and Jeongin joined them, all in states of mild sleep depravity. Woojin, who’d also been one of the few to find out about the fake last night, was more subdued than ever. No one had told Seungmin what had happened, so he was completely oblivious, and Jeongin, their sweet little maknae, was trying his best to keep the mood from dropping. He was smiling, and teased Chan about his height. 

Sometimes it was easy to forget with his friends around. 

Jisung noticed Minho scanning the cafeteria, then twist around to watch the doors. “Has anyone seen Felix?” He asked. 

Jeongin nodded, “I saw him walking to the gymnasium already.” 

“Seriously?” Chan’s eyes grew wide with amazement. “He’d normally sit with us, even if he does wake up early.” 

Minho shifted, looking guiltily down at his food, still yet to be touched. Jisung wanted to say that it wasn’t his fault, but that was most likely a lie. Minho was the only possible variable. It wasn’t harsh to think so, it was just a fact. He felt kind of bad though. “That’s okay, he probably just wanted to clear his head,” Jisung said easily. “He gets like that sometimes.” It wasn’t a complete lie. There had been only a couple of times Felix had walked out on any of them, Jisung could count them on one hand. It happened to all of them, after all, it wasn’t like the Institution was a stress-free environment.  

“What about Felix?” Changbin came around and shuffled in beside Chan. 

“It’s fine, he’s fine,” Chan assured him, though Changbin took one look at Minho and narrowed his eyes the slightest amount. The Micro expression was wiped off his face before Minho could turn back to see what was up. 

They finished up eating (or not eating, though Minho got a few dirty looks when he threw out nearly all his food) and left for their morning classes. Jisung, Hyunjin, and Jeongin all had design class first, so they got split up from their hyungs. Bang Chan, Woojin, and Minho were all stuck in the same class, while Changbin and Seungmin somehow ended up having a physics class together. 

Once the three of them made it to their class, they spotted Felix furiously typing something on his holotablet. He had an array of different tabs displayed in front of him, most of them swept off into his peripherals several feet away from the actual tablet. The holo screens were running lines of code, backup programs, and one was even an AI trying to solve a 50 faced rubik's cube. Felix looked up once they entered and swiped the background programs into his tablet and out of sight. 

“If the teacher saw those, you’d be dead,” Jisung warned in a low voice. “What are they?” 

“Hyung will show you, and don’t talk so freely,” Felix looked up at the camera in the corner of the classroom, then at the teacher who was sitting rigidly at her desk, staring blankly at her monitor. They were early by a minute. The bell rung before jisung could ask any more questions, and a flood of students filed into the classroom in a more than orderly fashion. 

The teacher stood, took her three steps to the front of the classroom and watched with cold, calculating eyes. She caught Jisung suspended between his seat and the isle, and he quickly shuffled back into his spot next to Hyunjin. Jeongin sat next to Felix and whispered something in his ear when the teacher averted her stare. It only took 2 minutes for everyone to be seated, and she began with a short lecture of the day’s topic, then they got the rest of the class time to code/build/design said project. It was due tomorrow. 

Jisung pulled up the required programs to start working when he got an email from none other than Minho. He minimised the tab so it fit into his palm before opening the attached files. There was simply a big red button that said  **DOWNLOAD.** Jisung didn’t hesitate to tap the button. A new tab opened, and a long thread of code flashed passed the screen, running a mile a second. “Shit,” Jisung whispered, slightly panicking. He closed the tab, but it still said that it was running as a background program.  _ Fuck what did Minho do??  _ He opened in back up and tried scrolling through the commands in the sequences, but he couldn’t control anything, they kept flashing passed as new code wrote itself. 

Jisung looked desperately to Hyunjin, who was calmly working on his project, then to Felix who was goofing off. Neither of them were looking at him. 

But then, Minho sent another email. 

 

_ Did you download it?  _

 

**Yes but what IS IT!?**

 

_ Are you running it right now? _

 

**YES!! IT DOESNT STOP?**

 

_ They’re firewalls designed to block firewalls and spyware. Anything you do on this tablet can’t be monitored by the Institution anymore. It runs your typical coding programs under a separate file that the Institution can few so they don’t  _ _ get suspicious. Enjoy your freedom :D _

 

**Seriously??**

 

_ Yep! Else I’d be dead by now for sending something like that!  _

 

**Holy shit that’s fucking amazing!**

 

_ So what’re you going to do with your freedom? _

 

**Transfer the guard pattern data to a tablet that actually works, then reconfigure your drone to hack into the Institution’s main frame via The Tower.**

 

_ What’s The Tower? _

 

**It’s the big tall building across barracks 4. It stores the big supercomputers that run the whole system. Get into those bad boys and we’d be able to shut down the whole place within seconds. I’m not too sure why they decided it would be a good idea to store their entire mainframe in one place, but hey, nothing’s perfect.**

 

_ You’re gonna get into some serious trouble… _

 

**Well, obviously** **_I_ ** **can’t stroll through the front doors. I want the drone to fly through the vents, and I need something to scramble the cameras, so I’m trying to convince Seungmin to help me with that. By the way, did you send the firewalls to everyone?**

 

_ Yep, I’m gonna open up a chat room so we can talk freely. _

 

**THIS IS FUCKING AMAZING!!**

 

Jisung was practically vibrating in his seat with excitement. No more cameras looking over his shoulder, no more monitoring, no more Institution breathing down his neck at any misstep. He had freedom at his fingertips, a new world to explore, all thanks to Lee Minho, resident mystery. He desperately wanted to figure him out. Just another puzzle, another code to crack.

Jisung wanted to test his limits. He glanced up over his monitors at the teacher, who was typing away at her own holo tablet. No one around him was paying attention, but he did notice that Hyunjin, Felix, and Jeongin were all running Minho’s firewalls. Hyunjin had an uncharacteristically blank look on his face, though his fingers were flying across the keys as he unencrypted one of their old codes. 

Jisung opened his own coded conversation he had with Chan about a month ago. It was about the room behind the concrete door, and about how shitty the institution had been to him the last time Chan had gone to the Correction Center. There were some particularly gruesome details that would’ve gotten them both killed if they ever said them out loud. He began to sift through them and un-scrambled their oh so precious codes. He looked up, waited for someone to call bullshit, waited for the sirens on his screen to flare to life, his holo tablet to lock up and shut off. Nothing happened. 

The conversation kept going and going, even to the points where he’d made some wishful thinking, and wanted to escape.

**I wish I could just run away. We should run away.**

 

Jisung stared at the teacher, willing her to do something about his mutinous words. She was completely oblivious. He wanted to scream and throw he arms up in victory, but settled for blowing a stream of air through his mouth and grinning to himself. Hyunjin caught sight of what he was doing, they shared a knowing look. 

Hyunjin added him into the chat Minho had started a second later. Messages from all 9 of them flooded into his screen. Everyone was ecstatic, even Seungmin, who was known to stay out of trouble. Maybe Jisung should have a little apprehension at Seungmin having access to the firewalls, and knowledge of them breaking almost every single law that bound them to the ground, but he didn’t. All he felt was joy. The joy of talking freely to his friends, to the prospect of new ideas, things to explore, and now more pressuring eyes on him 100% of the time. Minho had gifted them a portable room-behind-the-concrete-door, another dream house, another safe place.

This was a start to true freedom. All the information in the world rested on these screens. They were now the most valuable things Jisung had in his life. Soon, they’d be able to break free. Just one step at a time. Figuring out new ways to break the rules was exciting. 

The nine of them didn’t exist within the system anymore. Jisung sent a silent thanks to Minho for his gift of freedom. 

Now, if only he’d help them truly break free from this deadly place. 

If only Minho was truly on their side. 


	6. Spider Thread

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Little puzzle pieces fall into place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...y'know, I had come up with a pretty clever note to say but I forgot... Enjoy!

“Is it normally just you in here?” Minho was shutting the door by the time Jisung figured out someone was opening it in the first place. He whipped around, a soldering iron (that he totally didn’t steal from the tech repair shop) in one hand, and a bunch of wires in the other. Caught red handed, he quickly put both down and wiped his palms on his pants. Minho tilted his head and blinked at him curiously.

“Uh… yeah, it’s just me most of the time,” Jisung answered finally. Minho nodded thoughtfully and took a few steps into the room. He was tipping on his foot awkwardly, like he didn’t know exactly where to go. 

“I felt like… like if I didn’t get out of that place…” Minho gestured vaguely to the outside world. Jisung understood perfectly. 

“I get you, it drives me mad. Not being able to talk, to express myself. I have to sit in a box and be perfect, as if!” Jisung scoffed and crossed his arms. 

“Yeah, it’s honestly a bit ridiculous,” Minho pulled out his holo tablet. “Where I’m from, we can do basically whatever.” 

Jisung’s eyebrows shot up. That sounded awfully chaotic already. He hated that he loved the idea. Chaos was forbidden in a place like this. What was it like? He had a feeling that Minho was chaotic. “How does that work?” He asked. Minho had not seemed adamant to talk much about his rebel group, Bangtan, the night before. He pulled his mouth into a frown. Jisung cringed back, he’d stepped over a line, hadn’t he. But before he could apologize, Minho waved him over. They both sat at the end on the table, and Minho set his holo tablet down between them. 

He opened up a set of files, a video projected in front of them. It was grainy, but there was laughter. A group of guys were moving in sync, but they looked happy and free. Over the static, Jisung heard a strange thing being played. It sounded like sweetness, if it could be a sound. Goosebumps raced across his skin suddenly. He was gripped with chills. 

“What  _ is  _ that?” He asked, putting his ear closer to the speaker. 

“What’s what?” 

“That sound…” Jisung tapped out what he thought the sound was. It was a repetitive pattern with other things, other tones, sprinkled on top. Morse code? 

“Music?” Minho finally said, dumbfounded. Jisung looked up, confused, and Minho gasped as dramatic as Hyunjin. “Holy  _ shit  _ you don’t know what  _ music  _ is?!” 

“N-no?” Jisung said, feeling small. Was music something so vital to humanity? Was it something that he was missing out on? Minho looked like he was about to explode out of shock. His mouth was hanging open, eyes wide, and eyebrows shot into his hairline. “Are you telling me… that you’ve never heard a  _ song  _ before?” 

“What’s that?” Jisung felt stupid. His cheeks flushed with embarrassment at his ignorance. Minho didn’t care, he shut off the video and pulled up a search engine.“How can they do that to you… that’s so cruel… no music… your whole life…” Minho was muttering to himself as his typed up something in the search bar, clicked on a video, and shoved it into Jisung’s face. Jisung held the holo tablet skeptically. On the screen was a freeze frame of some colorful video. 

He pressed play.

Jisung had never felt more cheated in his entire life. His world had thoroughly been ripped apart in one night, and now, Minho was slowly showing him how to stitch it back together. To sew this wound close, he showed him something that changed his world forever. Music. It was like feelings had never existed until now. Each new song, each beat, each note, struck him in the heart strings and rang in his soul. He felt  _ alive,  _ as beats played over his eardrums. He learned what rapping was, and he was  _ fascinated.  _ Sure, he wrote poems, fit together words that rhymed. But their rhythm changed the game for him. It was a switch being flipped in his head. He knew that he’d never be able to forgive the Institution for keeping something so beautiful from him. 

He spent the rest of the night with his face buried in Minho’s holo tablet, completely in a trance as Minho played him song after song. They somehow inched closer and closer until Jisung was crowding over his shoulder to watch another ballad. A pretty singer with her mouth on a microphone, belting out notes that grabbed his heart and squeezed. He loved it. He’d never loved anything more. He tried humming a few notes, but they didn’t sound right. Maybe he should just try to rap one of his poems. 

Maybe an hour passed without either of them saying a word. Minho let the music videos auto play, and Jisung was too enraptured by each song to say anything. The trance was broken when Minho twisted his neck and popped it three times, causing Jisung to startle. 

“That sounded disgusting,” Jisung muttered. Minho paused the videos and cracked his knuckles. “Gross,” Jisung complained and shoved him away. Minho started laughing, twisted his back, which crunched in several different places. Jisung shivered and gagged. “That’s horrible! What’re you doing?” 

“Cracking my joints,” Minho dead panned, and stretched out his arms over his head. Jisung rolled his eyes, would he really have to deal with this mess of a person? 

“Okay, now that we’re done binging music videos, I have some questions for you,” Minho shut his tablet off. Jisung wanted to whine about it, but Minho seemed semi serious, so he shut up and waited for him to talk. “What exactly are you doing in here most of the time?” 

“Here? I just chill, try to fix some things. The members, especially Chan, give me little bits and pieces of stuff, so I build whatever I can. I’m trying to fix the drone right now,” Jisung scooted down to the other side of the table and picked up the drone bits. “I can’t get the left propeller to start,” He pointed to the bent thing, he’d taped the plastic back together, but it still was stuck on something. 

“That’s a Bangtan drone, y’know,” Minho said. 

Jisung’s stomach dropped for a second. “They don’t put trackers on these things, do they?” 

“Well,  _ I  _ did,” Minho grinned when Jisung scowled at him. 

“How’d Chan get it in the first place? He never told me.” 

Minho sighed and ran a hand through his hair, thinking. “So I’m trying to scout this place out, right, but since it’s under the dome, we can’t see it, just as you guys can’t see the outside. So I was flying my drone and crashing it right into the glass panes, it felt through, and Chan picked it up later that day. Lucky me, too, I had no idea where this place was, but I’d already sent off my data sheet and transfer papers.” 

“Wait… all your files are fake?” 

Minho stared at him for a second, then blinked once. “Yeah?” 

“Okay,  _ how  _ did you manage to create a fate life within the district’s systems?” 

“Dude, it’s like a database, hack it, put your own source code, bam. Look,” Minho pulled back his sleeve and revealed a barcode tattoo, “I’ve got my own number and everything,” Minho pulled his sleeve away before Jisung could reach out and touch it. “It’s incredibly easy when you’ve got friend who’ll do all the hard work for you.” 

“Friends? In your rebel group?” 

Minho shrugged. “It was their send off present for me. I’m stray now, remember that, I don’t belong anywhere any more.” 

Minho played it off like all of this was fine, but worry shown in his large, dark eyes. Jisung wanted to tell him that it was okay, but was it? Should he tell him that he was with them now? Or was it too early to tell if Minho fit into their group? He kind of had to though, Felix and him were blood, after all. Jisung just nodded instead. “It’s okay, being a loner is kind of bad ass anyway,” 

Minho smiled just a little. “It’s whatever. But I came here with a mission, and I still plan on carrying it out.” 

Jisung’s face fell. Not this again. Minho was still thinking of getting him and Felix out, wasn’t he? Of course he was. The rest of them meant nothing to him other than distractions. Maybe he despised them for taking his little brother for themselves, and now were selfishly trying to cling onto their last hope of escape. They weren’t, but if Minho wanted to run away with Felix in tow, the only one stopping him was Felix. 

“What’s the outside world like,” Jisung asked cautiously. He still had no idea how Minho would respond to all his questions, it was pretty 50/50 at this point. There was a pause, and then Minho huffed. 

“It’s honestly… kind of shitty as well, but we’re free. What I keep referring to as rebels are more like factions. Each one is different. They run their territories differently depending on the leaders, the terrain, and the civilians of course. The faction I was in, Bangtan, was one of the bigger ones. They tried not to get into that many  _ big  _ fights, mainly because no one really  _ wanted  _ to fight them, but sometimes there were a few skirmishes at the borders,” 

“Were you in any of them?” 

Minho barked a laugh. “Hell no, I’m not stupid enough to cause trouble where we don’t need it. A lot of the people there were scared of other factions, or their egos were too big. Some people thought that they could get away with ii unscathed.” 

Jisung nodded, though he had no idea why people from different factions would be fighting each other when there was a more pressing enemy at hand. Who exactly was the face of the Institution? No one had ever seen them. Did they really exist?

“But one thing that I do know, is that going stray is the worst thing you can do,” 

Jisung stood up in alarm. “That’s bullshit! You’re just trying to help your brother!” 

Minho smiled sadly. Jisung’s chest ached at his lost expression. “Bangtan won’t take me back, those are the conditions. I’m a traitor to them, a deserter.” 

“So where are you gonna go..?” Jisung sat back down on the table and folded his legs close to him. 

“Far, far away, where there’s no one around, where we can be at ease, for once in our pathetic lives.” 

Jisung assumed the ‘we’ was Minho and Felix. He didn’t seem too keen on dragging the rest of them along. But this was only an assumption. Somewhere deep in his soul, a little spark of hope flared and burned out just as quick. Jisung sighed in defeat. Maybe he could stage his own escape. The chances of him succeeding would be very low, though. The 8 of them did better together. 

Jisung picked at a loose thread on his pant leg, not exactly sure what to say. Minho was silent, lost in thought, though he didn’t look as sad as he had minutes ago. He sighed, causing Jisung to flinch. 

“Sometimes, you have to let go of the past to move forward, so we’ll get out and go where no one can find us.” Again, this mysterious “us.” Who was Minho referring to? Had he changed his mind? Was the “us” just the Lee brothers? Would Jisung have to suffer the wrath of the Institution when he’d be ultimately questioned about his relations with both Felix and Minho? What would happen to him then? 

It was a paralyzing fear that he couldn’t bring himself to voice, but it festered in the back of his mind. It wanted to eat up his happiness and spit it back in his face. It wanted to saw away at these small sparks of joy, the thrills of rule breaking and even his new found love of music. Fear struck him and stilled his breath and made his nerves into ice. 

Every emotion he could feel he felt because Minho had crashed into his life and left a mirage of broken glass in his wake. Beautiful and captivating, everything Minho stood for was exactly what Jisung wanted. One false move, and he’d fall. He’d fall and land in those shards of glass, and be cut apart by his own heart, his own fear, and eventually be tossed to the Institution to finish the job. He couldn’t have that. His soul couldn’t take it anymore. He’d cling to any string he could get. Jisung needed a spider thread of hope to claw out of hell, and if Minho dangled such a thing, an “us,” then Jisung grabbed it, and he forced himself to believe that “us” was 9 or none. He needed it to be true. It had to be true. 

“What do you think you’ll need to get out of here?” Jisung asked. He stared at Minho hard this time, not shying away even when Minho turned his dark, serious gaze on him. He wanted to shy away, he wanted to duck his head, and save his soul from eyes that could see right through him to his core. But as much as Minho was scary, he was captivating, and held his attention without even breathing. 

“I need transportation first off,” Minho said. Jisung’s mind flashed to the bus. The old, shitty bus that probably wasn’t working properly, but sat far in the middle of the waste lands. He didn’t let a word slip. 

“Then we need to make sure that  _ they  _ don’t know. That’s the hardest part.” Ah, the mysterious ‘they,’ the Institution without a face, minimized to a single word that gave it less power. And this mysterious “we.” 

“That would involve a thorough map of the guard’s routes…” Minho left that sentence hanging for Jisung to jump on. Jisung caught on right away, but didn’t say anything. Minho needed him for something. The threads of hope grew thicker inside his heart. He couldn’t show a single emotion, though his eyebrows twitched before he could school his expression into indifference. 

“Then, depending on the kind of transportation, we’ll need some sort of fuel, and a route to get out. I’m sure that I could pick a direction and smash right through the dome. It’s not that sturdy from I’ve witnessed.” Minho clenched his jaw and looked down at his feet. “The instant we move an inch from our cages, they’ll know. We’ll be under fire for the whole operation, and they  _ will  _ shoot at us.” 

Jisung swallowed down the lump forming in his throat. Was it worth the risk? Was it worth getting out? Did he want freedom? Or was he comfortable living inside a dome, inside the box of his own existence? He had to think. Everything he knew was a lie, a fabrication of reality that the Institution had sewn into his head, thus he himself was also a fabrication of their design. So why did they design him, and Chan, and Changbin, and Woojin, and all 9 of them with flaws that got them in trouble? Was it on purpose? Did they dangle free will in front of their noses then rip in away and drag them backwards into a hellish pit? 

“Why’re we so different?” Jisung wondered to himself. He sighed deeply and hugged his knees to his chest, looking at a swirl of dust rise in front of the light. 

“You’re a glitch in a flawed system,” Minho muttered back. He drew a line in the dust settling on the table. “There’s a ‘them’ and an ‘us.’ Be grateful Chan hyung saved you.” 

“Chan hyung? What did he do?” Jisung narrowed his eyes at Minho. What the hell was he talking about? Minho just blinked and pulled his mouth in a line. Maybe he should’ve just kept quiet. Jisung wasn’t going to get an answer from him, so he made up his mind that he’d pry it off of Chan the first thing Sunday morning. 

…...

Minho fit himself into their group quite well, just as Jisung had predicted. The ripples had settled, and the 8 of them welcomed their 9th member, who brought with him a plethora of new information, new technology, and new ways to break the rules. Minho was still a mystery to Jisung, so he made it a goal to figure him out. Just who exactly was Lee Minho? Along with that, who exactly was Han Jisung? Maybe Minho knew… Maybe no one did. Was Jisung allowed to make himself up? Was he allowed to be any one he wanted? 

Minho, it turns out, was weird on another level of weird. He didn’t show it much—he was a fantastic actor—but behind their concrete wall in that tiny room of dreams, he was the odd one out. He clearly didn’t care either. One day, he started a random conversation with Chan about cats. Chan had never seen a cat, and Minho nearly broke down crying because “how have you never seen a cat?!” Then he’d opened his holo tablet and opened a shit ton of videos of what they all assumed were cats. Jisung loved them, whatever they were. 

No matter what, Jisung was the one who spent the most time in the room. He was still working on fixing the drone, and was using his now district-proof holo tablet and transferring all his data from the old, nearly broken model that had held his previous projects. The thing is, was that now he had a distraction. Before, it was just him every night, plugging away at numbers, wires, or scribbling down poems and journaling until he was about to pass out from exhaustion. That was his life, he loved it. But now, Minho started to tag along. Don’t get him wrong, he actually enjoyed to company, but nearly all his personal projects had come to a halt as he listened to Minho. 

It was strange and a little awkward the first two days, because Jisung was still used to seeing Minho as sort-of an evil outsider. After all, they still had no confirmation if he was going to help them escape, but on the other hand, Minho had given them the greatest gift they’d ever received, free use of their holo tablets. Minho wasn’t here to make enemies. He was here to save his little brother. Jisung couldn’t fault him for that, and despite his best efforts, Minho wormed his way through Jisungs (let’s be real: basically non existent) walls. He also came every night with stories from the outside world. Jisung would prop himself on the table, cross his legs, and watch as Minho paced around the room, reenact stories, and occasionally run right up to him, eyes shining, as he retold a particularly intense scene.

There was so much that Jisung didn’t  _ know,  _ and it bothered him. Some days, his head would fog over until it was throbbing, he’d hunch his shoulders and press his temples. How could the Institution keep  _ so much  _ from them? How come he never knew about the most basic things? So he’d try to bury those ugly thoughts and feelings, and wait it out. 

It was a bit easier to forget all the horrible things that were done to them with Minho there to distract him. Whenever Minho started talking, he derailed easily, but would never stop. He’d go on tangents about how stupid the Institution was, then switch to showing Jisung a video of a chicken. It was like he wanted Jisung to know everything there was about the real world, even if it was the most trivial things. He started to daydream in class about sneaking off into the room behind the concrete door, and Minho would be there already, leaping off a table or shoving his holo tablet into his face, already prepared to give him a lecture on whatever random subject Minho thought that he had to know. 

Of course, the rest of their friends would tag along every once in a while, and Minho would continue to be weird. But when there was more of them, space became a commodity. With 8 of them, they’d have enough room for all of them to spread out along the walls with a little distance. Normally, Felix or Hyunjin would sit on the table, Jeongin might squeeze underneath it for shits and giggles, while the rest of them either plopped themselves on the floor, or stayed standing. 

They had fun, enjoyed their stories, and sometimes would fantasize about the real world. Though whenever they brought it up, especially when it was him, Hyunjin, Jeongin, or Felix, their hyungs would grow quiet and still. They’d watch as the four of them try to picture what it was like. Sometimes, Chan or Changbin would join in and think about what certain foods would taste like, or what the real sun looked like. Minho would look on, sometimes whisper something to Woojin. 

On another note, it turns out that Woojin was basically the only one who could control Minho when he got too salty and started spitting insults at anyone who crossed his path. It happened maybe once a week, and never in front of a teacher. Sometimes, Minho would get fed up with someone or something, and he’d hiss a mean comment at the next person who tried to look at him. Then Woojin would sweep in, as if he could sense it, grab Minho by the arm, or (lightly) by the collar, and drag him away. Jisung was reminded of this one video Minho showed him of a kitten being carried away by its mother. 

He wondered often why Minho respected Woojin more than Chan, but then he saw it one night. Minho was just being Minho. He and Changbin were making weird faces in a mirror Jisung had made from their old tablet. “Minho when did you get so pretty,” Chanbin laughed jokingly. 

Minho looked him dead in the eyes and said, “Since I’ve been standing next to you.” 

Jisung snorted so violently he nearly blacked out before erupting into laugher. Hyunjin and Felix started their high pitched cackling as Changbin proceeded to chase Minho around 

Woojin stepped up and stopped them. “Minho, you’re pathetic to compare yourself to someone else.” 

“Oh shit, he’s right,” Jisung sang, and Minho rounded on him after a solid second of solemn silence. Jisung screeched and flung Felix in front of him, and Minho ended up crushing both of them into a hug. It was a surprising gesture, then he tipped them over until Jisung was at the bottom of a dog pile. 

“I’m gonna die!” He coughed and laughed at the same time. He was light headed with happiness, but also was about to die. Felix was still trying to fend off Minho, who’d begun to wrestle with his brother, all the while, Jisung was trapped under them. Felix elbowed his ribs and Jisung smacked at his arms in retaliation. “Get off I’m gonna die!” 

“You’re  _ fine!”  _ Minho said as Felix finally rolled off him. Minho stood up as well, dusted himself off, then shot a glare at Woojin. It wasn’t as menacing as it used to be, but he was clearly gonna start something. 

Woojin saw it coming too, and looked down his nose as Minho. “Don’t start something you can’t finish,” he hissed, completely serious to the point where it was a joke. Jisung wanted to wheeze again, but he was certain Minho would try to bury him alive. It was all in good nature though.

The air was alive with the sound of their laughter and the faint notes of music. If only Seungmin was here to see what a beautiful little space they’d made this room. The clutter added to the charm, little personal nick-knacks and things that should not exist, much like themselves. Minho had begun his own collection of spare parts and metal scraps to build little sculptures of animals Jisung had never seen before. Many of them ended up being cats. 

Minho definitely brought freedom with him when he crashed his drone into district 8. But what Jisung hadn’t expected was the happiness that came along with Felix’s blinding smile, and their renewed laughter that had been dusty for far too long. He brought them quick witted jokes, a bright smile and shining mischievous eyes. Minho had brought them something they’d never had before. The spider threads of hope. 


	7. What Goes on in the Mind of a Glitch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO I haven't been writing as much... I just... I'm bad at keeping a schedule... but here you go ig.

Minho hated routine more than anything in the world. He especially hated a routine that didn’t fit his natural sleeping patterns and forced him to wake up at ridiculous hours that did not fit him. So that was what happened the first few days that he was here. District 8. God, he never thought he could hate a place more than he did. There was a time when he was with Bangtan that he thought it was the worst place to be. Then he saw what was really going on in the world, and he was grateful to his mother who’d thrown him out the window before the government officials had busted open the front door. 

He could remember that day as vividly as if it were yesterday. The door had pounded, Minho had grabbed Felix as quickly as possible while their mother had shuffled them to the back side of the house. People were flooding out of their homes and away from the lines forming in the streets. People were screaming, there were gunshots, and glass breaking. His mother had screamed at them to jump out the window, but they both hesitated. 

In one moment, Minho had been lifted into the air and the door was bent inward as four men with black armor and face masks burst into the house. He remembered the world freezing the moment Felix’s hand slipped out from his. Then he was tumbling onto the grass, the harsh sun pounding on his back. There was a pause when he hit the ground and rolled a good four feet, before someone, he had no idea who, was yanking him to his feet. There were dozens of people running from their back doors and scattering like mice. Guards had yet to burst through the lines of houses. The raid was quick, but they seemed to be quicker. Minho wanted to turn back, because he needed to see if Felix had gotten out, but the man who’d grabbed him shoved him along, and he had no choice but to flee the scene. 

It was only later when everything hit him and he broke down sobbing in the middle of the pack of migrating people. No one stopped for him though. They had to survive, and another 10 year old was worthless. He was just another mouth to feed, and they didn’t want him. So he was left on the side of a road until he could move again, long after his once neighbors had moved on. 

The raid had happened in a suburb of a major city. The city wasn’t run by a district, but by a Faction. Minho had been told that much. If he followed the roads into the city, he’d be safe. The people there would take care of him. His mother had told him that before… well… before everything. But Minho, at that point, didn’t want to move. So he stayed by the side of the road, curled up in a ball on the sidewalk. Trash littered nearly every corner. Abandoned cars were parked and turned over by the government when they’d swept this area a week ago. There was nothing left. No one would come for a tiny 10 year old. 

It was by pure luck that he was spotted 7 hours later by a Bangtan member on a motorcycle. He couldn’t have been more than 16. And for some reason, that was his ride into Bangtan, and that was where he stayed until he fled. Minho had made a silent promise to himself on the back of that motorcycle. He’d find his brother again, even if he died trying. 

Over the next 10 years, Minho learned all he could about the districts, the Institution, the codes they used and exactly how to hack into them with Bangtan drones and spyware. The kid who’d picked him up that one day became a leader, along with seven others, and the whole dynamic of the Faction changed. Fights stopped, people were well fed and happy within their city limits, and everything was perfect there. Minho almost didn’t want to leave. 

But he just had to. He knew Felix must be suffering somewhere. He wasn’t like the other kids who’d been in the system since an age where they didn’t remember their mothers. Felix would know, and that would kill him. 

So he left. He left with the help of Seokjin, the kid who’d saved his life. He’d given Minho one drone, a holo tablet, helped him fake all his files, then dumped his motorcycle on him to top it off. Minho couldn’t thank him enough. But with that, he was a stray, and banished from Bangtan’s borders. 

The moment he’d stepped through the barrier, it was mind boggling. He’d never seen a place so washed of color. Nothing was red or orange, and the only faintest of yellow was the tinted rays of a fake sun. District Protocol had anyone from the outside kept in vans with absolutely no windows so no one could see the real world. Their illusion was safe and secure. Until Minho busted through the top of the dome with his trusty drone.  

It was a relief that his drone fell to the hands of a glitch. Glitches, he’d been taught, were people that weren’t affected by the Institution’s brainwashing techniques and sedative laced food. The Institution wasn’t making mindless drones though. They were making an obedient army. So the brainwashing wasn’t to a point where everyone thought exactly the same, it was to keep them in check. It was to keep their curiosity to a minimum, and to trust the system. Glitches didn’t buy into that shit. 

Like he’d hoped, Felix was a glitch as well. And glitches were naturally drawn to each other because they were the only ones to seem to be able to think for themselves. Minho was only sceptical about one person, and that was Seungmin. One of Felix’s closest friends that reminded him of a puppy. Seungmin was smarter than all of them combined, no doubt, and that made him dangerous. He soon found out though, that Seungmin was breaking the rules in his own way. He stayed out of trouble, but that didn’t mean he was a mindless puppet of the Institution. Seungmin was an anomaly, both a glitch and a superb soldier within district 8’s ranks. He was an insider, and would be very useful in the future. 

And then there was Han Jisung. Felix’s best friend by sheer birthday approximation. Who knew that so much energy could radiate from such a short person? Jisung was literally a tiny squirrel that ran around stashing things, making things, and talking. He first stood out when he tried to interrupt Minho and Felix’s staring match in the cafeteria, then again when he kept pressing for answers. At first, Minho assumed that he was just a loud mouth, but of course, he’d been proven wrong. 

Jisung just thought about everything at once, that’s how Minho figured it. He thought about the future, the past, the present, and the hypothetical alternate realities all at once and it would slowly crush him until he’d gotten the answers he was looking for. It took Minho only two days to grow fond of him, and realize that Jisung just  _ was  _ more than he thought of himself. 

It was a little heartbreaking to see Jisung second guess himself, and question his entire existence, to be mentally tortured to the point where he had mild paranoia. Minho had no idea what went on inside the Correction Center, only that Jisung had been there five times and that it was forbidden to talk about it. Maybe he could get him to spill his secrets. He wanted to know, for whatever reason, he’d picked Jisung to pick apart and examine. 

Minho wanted to shout at him that it was going to be okay, that everything was going to turn out all right. But he couldn’t give him false hope. He couldn’t crush him like that. So he watched and observed and made the very clear decision to distract Jisung as much as he could from what was really going on. He showed him the funniest videos he could find of things he’d never seen before. Minho showed him music, rap, dance, and even helped him repair the drone. Though Chan had banned them both from flying it outside the room for now. 

He’d tried to explain the different colors that were more muted here, like the reds and oranges that were more vibrant and beautiful than through the pixelated versions filtered through a tinge of green on their holo tablets. He told him all about the different kinds of food to eat, the different plants that could kill you, even what the architecture of the cities looked like before and after The Fall. 

The Fall was something that Jisung never learned about, because he was part of the Districts. He was apart of the after effects, the casualties, the M.I.A’s, the experiments. So Jisung knew nothing, neither Chan or Woojin knew what he was talking about when he mentioned it. Felix knew, of course he’d been taught and it was impossible to forget. But those inside these districts lived in a bubble inside and out. They were isolated, they were the ‘others,’ and it would kill them if they tried to leave without Minho’s help and guidance. 

He should just run out with Felix. He could carry his younger brother on his back, tie him up and drag him away if he needed… It had only been a week and a half since he got here, and he knew, deep inside his heart, that he wouldn’t be able to leave any of them behind. Maybe it was Jisung’s fault. His wide eyed anticipation to whatever Minho wanted to show him, his talkative and naturally funny personality, and his insanely creative brain. Minho’s read a few of the poems he leaves around the shelves as if they’re hidden from sight. He’ll never, ever, tell Jisung.

So he can’t leave them behind. But what were they going to do? 

Minho was sitting with his back pressed to the floor and the back of his legs to the wall so his body was a 90 degree angle. It was an odd position, but he was bored while Jisung tried to hit a high note. He’d been trying to imitate this ballad singer ever since Minho had showed him. He didn’t want to tell him to give up, but the constant shrieking was grating on his ears. Minho let his legs fall to the side and he slumped in the corner just as Jisung’s voice broke and he swore loud and scratchy. 

Minho peeked up at him and smiled at Jisung puffing his cheeks out in frustration. “Maybe you should just rap something instead,” He suggested. Jisung scoffed and turned back to the array of tabs open on his holo tablet. He had them arranged in front of him in a ring so he could turn and find a new video, tutorials, and even an electronic piano keyboard Minho had shown him an hour ago. He’d been fascinated with it, and was completely certain Minho had only shown him. Little did he know that Chan and Changbin had been the first to discover it. 

A big part of Minho’s life had been music. It was touted as a gateway to freedom in Bangtan. It was pure expression, pure difference, everything that the Institution hated. It was curiosity, experimentation, and emotion. It shouldn’t have been a surprise that music was banned within the districts, but it was still a shock that Jisung had no idea that it existed. Though he didn’t produce music himself, he knew he had to keep the keyboard in his holo tablet and share it with anyone he’d given his source codes to. Maybe it could make the glitches be more glitchy.

“I think you talk fast enough as it is, just add a beat and some lines and a cool rhythm, bam! Rap!” Minho clapped his hands together, he was still lying on the floor, and Jisung looked down at him with big shining eyes. It took him off guard for a second. 

“It can’t be that easy hyung,” Jisung spun around to the keyboard and pressed a few disgusting chords. “I’ll figure this out eventually.” 

“You do that,” Minho muttered. For some reason, his own holo tablet had become quite boring for him. It felt like he’d explored most of what the internet had to offer, and now it was a plain piece of technology that didn’t interest him as much as this pitiful squirrel boy trying to hit notes that should be physically impossible for him. 

He rolled over to stare at one of the walls. Before he’d come here, he was told that it had been completely blank. Now, it was littered with pictures, fairy lights, and ripped out pages from Jisung’s notebooks. He was truly making this his home, a tiny room in the wall. Still no poems on the wall, but there were these little character drawings of his friends, maps of the facility, and pages and pages of plans that he could’ve put in his holo tablet. But there was something romantic and vintage about using pens and paper instead of keyboards and styluses, wasn’t there? Minho liked Jisung’s handwriting, it was small and neat, but just enough scribbling to make it barely legible. From far away, it looked pretty, shoved into margins or spread out over the lines of the page. Up close, it was a mess, a clear sign of a messy mind. It was just like Jisung to have handwriting like that. Though Minho hadn’t known him long, it was easy to see these little quirks in Jisung’s personality. Or maybe Minho just paid attention to him more than the others. It was hard not to when Jisung wanted to know everything about him as well. 

“We should go do something,” Minho muttered. He was getting tired of being stuck in this tiny space, even though it was beautiful and cozy. His heart wanted a thrill, he wanted to run around and get into trouble. “We should go outside,” He propped himself up then sat cross legged. Jisung turned slowly around with a look of horror on his face. Minho almost laughed. 

“We’ll die if we go out there!” 

Minho tapped his chin. “Not true, Chan was out in the fields when I crashed my drone through the roof,” Minho grinned as Jisung faltered, words failing him, and he gaped like a fish out of water. “So I bet there’s places around where they can’t see us.” Jisung looked at the door, a mere slit in the wall. He bit the inside of his cheek, eyes flitting all over the place except for Minho. What was he thinking? Minho wished he could read minds. Alas, he had to wait and wait as Jisung thought up a million possibilities, weighed the risks and rewards, and ultimately come up with a decision. 

“I know a place, but you have to help me get there.” 

“Where is it?” Minho jumped to his feet, ready to go. He hadn’t been aware that his legs had started to fall asleep. 

“It’s on the other side of the fence,” Jisung was chewing his bottom lip. He looked worried. Maybe this wasn’t the greatest idea. Minho didn’t want to get anyone else in trouble. He was sure Chan would kill him before the Institution got the chance. “Let’s do it!” 

Minho smiled reassuringly, but his heart suddenly pounded with danger at the glint in Jisung’s eyes. They were walking a fine line of safety and risk. Maybe they should just be cowards and stay here. But then Jisung was prying open the door and flicking off the lights and there was no way in hell Minho was going to abandon him now. 

The outside world was as still and silent as it had been hours ago. There wasn’t even the faint whispers of wind or the shuffling of grass blades. The street lamps that seemed so far away stood like stoic white pillars. In the moment, they were their worst enemy. Jisung kept a hand pressed to the wall like an anchor and slowly leaned his body as far away as possible. Minho had his back pressed flat to the wall and refused to move until Jisung called it clear. On the opposite side of this wall, the bunker, was another; the fence. But it really was just a solid 10 foot tall steel wall that stretched out on either side into the black oblivion of night. There were no lamps to light their way, and they didn’t dare take out their holo tablets. Stumbling slightly in the dark, they krept forward, bodies low to the ground. Minho reached out and snagged Jisung’s forearm to make sure that they didn’t lose each other, Jisung reacted quickly and pulled Minho’s hand into his own. For a single, split second, Minho allowed himself to be surprised at the gesture, but thought nothing of it. 

“Boost me up first,” Jisung whispered when they were at the fence. They untwined their hands and Minho laced his fingers together, placed them palms up on a bent knee, and held still as Jisung put his foot on his hands. He reached out and placed a hand on Minho’s shoulder, which quickly turned into a vice grip as he wobbled. Minho bit the inside of his cheek to stop from hissing in pain as Jisung’s hand curled into his flesh. In a swift move, Minho propelled him upward just enough so that Jisung could hoist himself onto the narrow ledge and swing his arm down to help Minho. They tried to keep silent, even as Minho’s foot slipped on the smooth metal, causing him to bruise his side and elbow. He left out the smallest of gasps then clenched his jaw. 

Perched on top of the wall, One leg on the side of the Institution, the other swinging into the fields of nothing, Jisung and him sat suspended between the same reality in two different places. 

“Are you okay?” Jisung asked when he caught Minho rubbing his side. 

“Fine. I’m fine.” Minho mumbled back. And it truly didn’t hurt as much as it had 20 seconds ago. Jisung nodded quickly before slipping down the fence and into oblivion. He watched, perplexed, as the darkness engulfed his friend, before he too inched his way off the fence and into the unknown. 

 Minho had never been here, but it didn’t look like much. Now, away from the prying eyes, cameras and street lamps, they felt safe and exposed at the same time. There were no buildings to hide their overstepped boundaries and disobedience. There were no cameras to catch them either. The darkness around them was like a mask that hid the unknown horror, and a blanket that they wore like a disguise. The two of them tilted their heads to look at the sky, which they both knew was fake, but damn did it look real. Without the distracting street lamps, they could see the stars more properly. Those white, artificial stars, the wispy gray clouds, and even a half moon that looked like the sleepy eye of a cat. 

Minho couldn’t stand it anymore. He pulled out his holo tablet, lit up the screen, then turned on  the flashlight. It cut through the veil, revealing the ground to be coated in overgrown grass and short dehydrated shrubbery. Everything had a slight purplish tint, and was coated in a fine layer of midnight dew. 

“Hey!” Jisung hissed, and pulled Minho’s arm to put the flashlight down. Minho wrestled himself away and glared threateningly at Jisung. 

“There’s no one out here, it doesn’t matter!” He snapped back. 

Jisung scowled. “You don’t know that!” 

“I’m like, 99.9% sure that there’s  _ no one  _ out here.” 

“Fine,” Jisung trudged forward until half of him was covered in the darkness, “if we die it’s your fault.” 

Minho rolled his eyes. This kid was dramatic as all hell. He accepted the terms anyway and they began stomping away from the wall.

There wasn’t much on this side of the wall. Jisung informed him that they called it the badlands, and that they couldn’t use this side for farming because the soil was horrible. So they blocked it off and no one was allowed back here for not-so-obvious-but-obvious reasons. Jisung had been back here only a few times, but according to him, it felt as mysterious and dangerous as the first. 

“Did Chan ever tell you about what I found here?” Jisung asked as they walked. They were getting pretty far from the fence. So far that Minho was convinced they were lost. He kept close to Jisung, mildly afraid that he’d be swallowed up by the darkness and never be seen again. 

“No, never,” Minho whispered back. If he raised his voice, he was sure that it would cut into the quiet atmosphere gathering around them. Jisung simply nodded slowly, and continued to kick rocks and shrubs out of their path. “I hope you know where you’re going.” 

Jisung turned and grinned at him. “Of course I do.” Minho nearly stopped in his tracks, taken aback at how carefree Jisung looked with a smile and crescent eyes and puffy cheeks. He nearly scoffed, but kept silent and continued forward, suppressing his own smile from inching onto his face. 

Minho starts to doubt Jisung after ten minutes of walking and everything still looked exactly the same. Jisung had his head down and was staring at his holo tablet. He’d miniaturized the screen to the size of a watch, and would not tear his eyes away from the tiny display. But Minho was getting antsy again. They didn’t speak much, except when Minho complained about the endless darkness, the endless shrubbery that all looked decaying, and the sky that never moved. He fidgeted with his own holo tablet, pulled out the keyboard and messed with it, only to have Jisung wave at him to stop. 

“Where are we  _ going?”  _ Minho whined for the millionth time. He could see Jisung’s shoulders tense, even in the minimal light provided by his tablet. A strange sense of satisfaction burned through him when he saw how annoyed Jisung was getting. Did he have any guilt? Honestly… not really. He was  _ bored.  _ He couldn’t help it, and walking this far away from the fence, they surely weren’t going to make it back before morning. 

“We’re almost there, calm down!” Jisung hissed at him, more than a little pissed. Minho smiled at him innocently, and Jisung rolled his eyes before whirling around. Even though Minho hadn’t known him for long, he could tell that Jisung was winding up to rant about-”Honestly, if you’d just stop asking we’ll get there faster. Are you really that dumb that you can’t entertain yourself for 20 goddamn minutes? You’ve got the whole freaking world at your fingertips and what do you do? Annoy the hell outta me, for what your own enjoyment.” 

Minho burst out laughing. “Exactly,” he said, and reveled in Jisung’s astonished face. 

“You’re really shameless huh?” he whispered, and Minho nodded again without hesitation. Jisung pinched the bridge of his nose, clearly giving up on getting Minho to shut up. It was a strange twist, considering Jisung was normally the one to talk anyone’s ears off. Maybe he was rubbing off on Minho. 

“Anyway, I swear we’re almost there, if  _ should  _ be around here,” Jisung waved into the darkness at the edge of Minho’s flashlight. 

“What exactly are we looking for?” Minho asked, this time a little more serious. He was deathly curious as to what could possibly be out here. 

“It’s hard to miss, you’ll know it when you find it.” 

Minho peered at the ground, then pulled back a short bush, confused. 

“No, it’s big, like really big,” Jisung instructed, “just waved your light around, we’ll find it.” 

Minho did what he was told. Jisung wandered off in a different direction, and although Minho was worried about getting lost, he continued along their original path. He kicked up the dry and crusted dirt as he walked, alone and no longer able to pester Jisung. But it really didn’t take very long to stumble upon it. 

Minho stopped dead when a rusted yellow figure caught his eye. He froze, prickles of fear suddenly immobilizing him. The hairs on the back of his neck rose. But then he shined his light on the thing again, read the black letters, traced the large object with his light, saw it for what it was, and breathed a sigh of fascination. 

“Jisung!” He called, “I found it!” Minho heard an excited holler from somewhere behind him. Like he was in a trance, he stepped forward and placed his hand on the metal side. It was no longer smooth due to age, wear and tear, and water that ate away at the paint, leaving large gaps of brown and bumpy rust. He looked up to see the windows shattered, broken glass still sharp and dangerous at the edges. There were even ivy and the blue buds of flowers—morning glories—creeping their way up the rust covered metal and in through the smashed windows. Minho noticed put marks as well, bullet holes, stabs, large crater-like indents, they littered the sides. The sight told a story, one that perhaps wasn’t the most pleasant. 

“So what do you think?” Jisung said, right in his ear. Minho jumped, heart leaped into his throat, then he came to his senses and slapped Jisung’s arm. Jisung had been nearly crying with laughter, but complained when Minho hit him. “That hurt hyung!” He rubbed his arm. Minho glowered at him instead of apologizing. 

But then he forgot about it, and returned to staring at Jisung’s discovery. Jisung did too, a big proud smile spread across his face. His eyes shone, even in the dim light. Maybe they reflected the fake moon and the fake stars, but his expression was real enough. Minho really couldn’t believe what he was seeing. 

Who just leaves a school bus in the middle of nowhere? 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man I'm like TRYING to pick up the pace but also have enough time for Minsung to do their thing and likkkeeeee get to know eachother I can't have them be rushed b/c slow burn mf. But the plot also needs to get moving, 
> 
> I'm trying guys I'm REALLY trying, but I also have to keep some mystery, and there are things that you just SHOULDNT know until the end but it's such a waiting game and UUUGGGGHHH writing this is really flexing my creative muscles I'm having such a hard time remembering all the details lmao.


End file.
